Your Greatest Fear
by InconsciousSin
Summary: It started as just another undercover mission to obtain information on a dangerous criminal. The plan was simple: Elizabeth would seduce answers out of the man then they would arrest him. but nothing is ever that simple for Team Mustang. ROYAI, Angst, Jealous!Roy, danger, kidnapping, violence, torture, etc. oh man. Hold on tight. (super bad at summaries.)
1. Chapter 1: Tallen Greggs

**Author's Note: Well, I'm back. I've been toying with the idea for this story for quite sometime and finally managed to find the time to work on it. I've got the next chapter almost finished as well, so I should be able to upload it soon. I hope you all enjoy! I will warn you: angst, jealous Roy, and much much more to come (in later chapters) so enjoy! and please, let me know what you think!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own FMAB or any of their characters which makes me really, really sad...**

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Chapter One:

 _Tallen Greggs_

Location: _The DoubleShot_

Time: _10:45 PM_

Her laughter usually set loose the flurry of wild butterflies in his stomach. It was such a rare occurrence to hear that soft, angelic giggle escape those perfectly tinted lips that he couldn't help but lose himself in it every time she allowed herself to drop that stoic military persona for even just a moment. He noticed that she usually laughed only when they were alone together in the office after hours, or when she was pretending to be Elizabeth on one of their famous phone calls. Today was different. This laugh was not just for his ears. This laugh was not giving him a fluttery feeling. Instead, it made something within him cinch up deep in the pit of his stomach. Those once fluttering butterflies had been pelted with stones, making him feel nauseous from the weight. His heart ached watching her fingers touch her slightly parted lips in a half ass attempt to hide the flirtatious giggle escaping her for another man's amusement.

This was not how this was supposed to go. It was supposed to be just a simple Intel mission to dig up more dirt about a popular gang leader named Tallen Greggs: a 34 year old mobster that had been causing a lot of ruckus in Central for years now with little to no leads until recently. One of his former underlings had been arrested for a minor assault charge on a prostitute two months ago and sang like a canary for the Intelligence Department about his boss and their activities to get a lighter sentence. Apparently, Tallen had a thing for ladies; whether that emthing /emwas brutally beating and torturing them, sexually assaulting them, or selling them for profit. Over ten bodies had been found with no indication as to who had been doing it until the underling willingly gave up all of that information as well. Naturally, Mustang's team was recruited to bring the man and all of his "friends" to justice due to the high risk this mission possessed and the record of success Team Mustang held from countless similar missions.

He was hesitant about taking the case simply after reading the man's profile and finding out everything they had obtained from the captured gang member. He knew she would volunteer herself to be the one to go undercover. He knew she would be dressed to impress and that she would shed Riza, sliding flawlessly into that tight fitting dress and into _Elizabeth's_ skin. His jaw flexed. He only seemed to have a problem with bruxism when watching her go on these undercover missions. He continued grinding the occlusal surface of his molars together, eyes fixated on the scene before him. Mustang's eyebrow twitched in mild irritation. He finished off his drink, slamming the glass a little harder than he intended to on the bar top behind him. She had to know what this was doing to him. There was no way she believed this wouldn't affect him. His fists were clenched so tightly, his knuckles were turning white and all feeling from the tips of his fingers had numbed.  
"Oh _stop._ You're so bad." Her fingertips brushed the stranger's chest in a playful manor. He felt like he had just been punched; KOed even. One gloved hand ran through his unruly onyx locks just as the creep across the bar reached out and brushed a loose strand of golden hair from his subordinate's cheek, tucking it delicately behind her ear.

"I'm done, that bastard's about to be cremated." Roy hastily rose from the bar stool he had been occupying for the duration of this mission, just to have a rough hand grab his shoulder and pull him back down.

"Whoa, there! I'd say someone is a little jealous, eh?" Havoc flashed his boss a lopsided grin. He was enjoying this far too much. Everyone in this bar probably assumed he was gay with the Colonel considering his amusement for the night had been staring at his commanding officer, watching the Colonel's reaction to their Lieutenant's exchange with their target. Roy glared at the hand on his shoulder, shrugging it off.

"I don't think this was a good idea. This guy is a creep; a rapist, a murderer, a big time gang leader… and clearly a womanizer. Why the hell did we think it was a good idea to send her in? We already know the bastard is guilty, let's book him and end this charade." His arms were now crossed in front of his chest and his bottom lip was puffed out slightly like a small child who was being punished for misbehaving. Havoc cackled. This was just too entertaining. "You need to relax. She's just acting."

Mustang simply huffed in response, arms still tightly locked across his chest. "I just don't understand why it had to be her. I don't see why we couldn't have sent in an expert in these operations. Like Veronica." Havoc was trying very hard not to break up into a fit of laughter at his friend's pouting fit. He managed to cough down the laughter rumbling in his stomach, muffling it with his fist. "With all due respect sir, would you not be worried and this on edge if Veronica were the one over there with the perp instead of Hawkeye?" Roy was apparently too caught up in watching the scene before them, cringing as she touched the lapels of the criminal's shirt again. "God, she just keeps _touching_ him! And no, I wouldn't. Veronica can handle herself. She does this for a living." Havoc leaned his forearm against the bar, resting his cheek in his palm. "So you're saying the Lieutenant can't handle herself, sir?" Roy scoffed. "I'm saying she shouldn't have to. Not like this. Not while I'm forced to sit here and watch, _uselessly._ " He spat the self-insult like it was acid on his tongue. Havoc allowed a sigh to leave his lips. "Sir, Hawkeye volunteered for this because she wants this guy off the streets as badly as you do; as badly as we all do. She is just like you when it comes to taking things into her own hands and not allowing someone else to put themselves in danger where she can do it for herself. She's perfectly capable and clearly very good at these missions. Besides, men love her." He said that last line hoping to elicit a reaction from his friend: it did. A low grumbling sounded deep within Roy's throat. _Men love her. Men_ love _her._ The sentence kept replaying in his mind. No other man should know her well enough to love her; to be close enough to feel such things for her. He knew his thoughts were possessive and borderline _obsessive_ sounding, but he couldn't help it when forced to witness her flirting so blatantly, so openly with another man when she would never be able to do such things with him because of their ranking.

Roy held his thumb against his middle finger, ready to snap. "If he touches her one more time, Havoc, I'm going over there. Screw the mission. I'll burn him where he stands." Havoc ignored Roy's threats and merely lifted two fingers to the bartender, silently instructing him to pour them two more drinks, before turning his steady gaze back on the woman across the bar. She truly was perfect for a mission like this. Riza's golden hair fell around her face like a goddess, accentuating her high cheek bones. She wore very little, if any make up around the office, so seeing her tonight with her long lashes blacker than night and her lips painted with a tint of red lipstick, she was definitely the envy of any woman in this pathetic place. In the standard frumpy military attire, it was difficult to make out any feminine curves. Tonight, however, The dress she was wearing; short, black, simple yet tight enough to hug every curve with a slit up one side; was enough to make the nose of a priest bleed. Yep. Havoc had to look away and readjust himself by throwing one leg over the other to hide the evidence of what his higher up was doing to him. He knew she had a weapon on her, Riza was not the type of soldier to put herself in a situation like this without some means of protection, but where she was hiding the holster was a mystery to the two men watching her.

The bartender had finished their drinks, a whiskey sour on the rocks for the Colonel and a gin and tonic for Havoc, just as Mustang was about to hop up from his seat once more as the criminal's lips barely brushed against his Lieutenant's ear as he whispered something to her. The blush on her cheeks was enough to piss him off. She let out another delicate laugh at whatever the man was muttering in her ear. Surprisingly, Roy allowed himself to turn away for the first time since he sat down to grab his glass and down the entire thing in one gulp. "Damn, boss. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're a little upset that the Lieutenant is getting attention from another man."

Mustang opened his mouth to reply just as his eye caught site of the criminal's filthy hand resting on the small of his subordinate's back. Red. Blood red was all he could see. Roy vaulted himself from the bar stool yet again, tugging at his glove to make sure it was in place. "I'm going to burn that hand off first." Havoc barely had time to grab his commanding officer before he made a scene. His arms grabbed for him, throwing him off kilter from the stool and knocking them both to the hard, wooden floor. "Dammit, Havoc, get off me!" Mustang had landed in a wet spot on the ground of the disgusting, low-end bar. Please, _please_ be beer, he silently prayed, feeling the liquid soaking his gloves as he pushed himself up. "Now my gloves are soaked. What if I need to assist in Hawkeye's protection?"

Havoc simply shrugged, "Well, I guess you aren't only useless in the rain, Colonel. Who knew dirty floors were your true kryptonite." The higher up shot daggers at the grinning blonde man at that comment, while Havoc was still struggling to get up off his boss. Luckily the music was loud enough that their target had not noticed the commotion, but someone had. "Colonel?" That sweet voice was almost a whisper. He hated hearing her in _Elizabeth_ mode with anyone other than himself, then once chancing to speak to him, her typical stoic military voice was back in place. The man grumbled, rubbing the ache from his shoulder where the blunt of the fall was received.

"Sir, get up before you ruin this mission. Do you need to go on outside watch with Falman and Breda? Or perhaps I should just send you home for the night to cool off?" Her voice had a slight annoyed tone to it, but her eyes held a glint of amusement in them. Roy scoffed, brushing himself off and pushing Havoc off of him. "Or maybe we should abandon this mission. It's getting too dangerous. And how am I ruining the mission when you are over here talking to us? He's going to notice." The thought made the sides of Roy's lips raise slightly in a satisfied smirk at this mission finally coming to an end.

She nodded towards the bathroom to their left. "He went to the restroom and asked me to get us another drink. He hasn't given me much to go on yet, so we aren't quite done here." The woman brushed her hair back over her shoulder, revealing far more cleavage than Roy thought necessary for a low-life like Greggs. He saw that she noticed him eyeing her exposed cleavage and flashed her a smile, "You look beautiful tonight by the way, Lieutenant." The slightest hint of a pink touched her cheeks for only a moment before it vanished. "Thank you, sir. But I would rather hurry and get this over with so I can get out of this dress and these heels so please... behave yourself?" Roy rested his temple on his fist, his elbow resting on the cushion of his barstool, and gave the woman a sly grin, "Well, _Elizabeth,_ if you are in such a hurry to get out of that dress, I would gladly assist you." She didn't appear amused like he had hoped, and instead turned away from the two men, "Very funny, sir. Just please try to behave yourself. Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen. I'm going to get back to work. Havoc, if you can't handle this mess," She placed a hand on her hip and jabbed her thumb in Mustang's direction, "Then you can trade positions with the other, clearly more competent, members of our team."

Havoc rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Being berated at the office or even by the woman in uniform was terrifying. But the way she looked tonight, it was more of a turn on than he cared to admit. He always did enjoy a bossy broad in the bedroom. Oh lord; if Roy could hear the filthy thoughts going through his head while thinking of their Lieutenant, he would be burnt to a crisp along with Greggs. Havoc made sure to avert his gaze from the perfect line of cleavage berating him, muttering. "Yes, ma'am. I'll be sure to use a tighter leash." She nodded.

Roy was finally able to stand back up, with the help of his abandoned stool. His head felt light and airy from the liquor consumption. He didn't realize how quickly he had been downing his drinks, or just how many he had consumed for that matter. He had been far too focused on what his subordinate had been doing and how many drinks _she_ had consumed. She wasn't much of a drinker. She hated having her inhibitions lowered. However, on a mission like this, she knew it would be suspicious to anyone with a brain for her to be in a bar, looking flawless the way she did and single, and not drinking anything but a tea or an ice water. So far she had consumed two rum and sodas, and judging by the soft glaze in her stare, she was beginning to feel a slight effect from the liquor.

Roy's gaze was intense. He sat back up on the stool, straightening out the collar of his white button up, and watched the woman saunter up to the bar with exaggerated slowness in her elegant crimson heels. Those legs, his weakness, were on display as she leaned over the bar, ordering her next drink and another for her _date_. He cringed at his own thought process. Why must he torture himself? It's not like this is real. It's not like that creep has any real chance with a woman like Riza. Why was he so upset? Maybe it was because she just showed too much interest when they were talking. Her hand grazed his forearm and the front of his shirt too many times. The twinkle in her eye felt too real from where he sat watching, agonizing.

Something shattered causing both Havoc and Riza to jump. She glanced back over to where her team members were with a slight eyebrow cocked curiously. Roy glanced down at the hand that was only moments ago cupped around his glass. He found that it was now in slivers and pieces of broken shards in his fist from squeezing it too tightly. Roy put on a perfectly crafted fake smile, "Oops." He forced out a chuckle, releasing the glass from his hand. The bartender apologized to Riza and told her he would make her drinks in a moment, before grabbing a damp towel from the sink and walking over to the two undercover officers. He rolled his eyes, clearly not in the mood for silly spills, but managed to smile kindly at Roy, "It happens more than you would think. Here, let me clean it for you." Roy held up his hand and shook his head. He held out his palm for the towel, "No I can do it. Can I get another drink, please?" The bartender glanced around the bar, realizing he had too many patrons waiting on drinks to waste his time cleaning up a drunken mess, so he politely held out his hand with the towel in it to the man. "Sure man. Thanks, I appreciate it. I was just about to take an order for that lady over there when"-

Roy cut the man off by grabbing the bartender's wrist and pulled him down to his eye level. "Hey, man! What the hell is wrong with you?! I don't swing like tha"- Roy's sharp glare cut him off. His teeth were tightly clenched together as he whispered in a hushed yet harsh tone. "Listen here, that woman over there is cut off. Got it? No more drinks for her. That's my sister, and she will end up puking her guts out all over this nice bar you have here if you continue to serve her. I doubt you have time to clean that up, considering this little mess of mine had you slightly exasperated."

The bartender's eyebrow rose in confusion before he shot a quick glance back at the woman patiently waiting for his return, "She seemed okay to me. Are you sure she's drunk? I know drunks and she doesn't seem to be one of them." Roy forced a cocky grin. He held out his other hand, discreetly containing 5o,ooo cenz. "Maybe this will help convince you." The man's eyes widened a fraction. He dropped the towel in Roy's palm, and then winked at Roy in understanding, carefully concealing the bribe and tucking it into the front pocket of his slacks. "Well alrighty then. Thank you, sir. And I'll get to making you a fresh drink." Roy nodded a satisfactory nod to the man. He watched the bartender walk right past Riza to the other end of the bar to help the two ladies there, waiting anxiously for another round of martinis. He was too proud of himself for this. He may not be able to burn Greggs face off tonight, but at least his Lieutenant was free from bad judgement from an intoxicated haze.

Roy began sweeping up the glass shards into the towel, dumping them into the bottom part of the broken glass that had somehow managed to stay together during his little fit. He finished wiping up the rest of the sticky mess just as the bartender came by and grabbed up the glass containing the sharps and tossed it in the trash then took the towel and did the same to avoid any leftover shards that may have stuck to it during the cleanup. The bartender set down a full glass for both men, "be careful with this one now." Roy gave his word with a slight chuckle. The man's onyx eyes met suspicious amber ones down the bar a few paces. She had watched the bartender walk right past her with his head ducked making it all too obvious that he was attempting to ignore her. Her eyes narrowed at the Colonel. He smiled back at her, lifting his drink to cheers to his successful plan and then took a heavy swig of the elixir, never breaking eye contact with his fuming Queen. She turned her attention away from her superior, turning her attention to the bartender whom was now busily flirting with the drunken broads at the far end of the bar. He continued to ignore her while she attempted to flag him down until she finally grew tired of the endeavor and huffed, stalking back over to the tall, fit man that she had been gracing with her presence all evening. Roy's eyebrow twitched.

He had almost forgotten Havoc was sitting right next to him and had witnessed the whole exchange with the bartender. He was shaking his head, that same smug grin plastered on his face. He reached into the pocket at the front of his t-shirt and pulled out his pack of smokes and a lighter. "She's going to shoot you when she finds out you're purposely compromising her mission." Roy merely shrugged, resting his elbows on the bar. "I didn't compromise anything. I'm just looking out for her well-being." Havoc placed the butt of his cigarette between his lips and lit it. "Right, right." He mumbled out between the cigarette before taking a deep inhale. Everyone gave Havoc shit about these things killing him, but he had zero doubt he'd end up dying from something stress related due to his commanding officer and his shenanigans. "You seem a little too smug for someone just looking out for a friend's well-being."

He let out a cloud of smoke before he spoke again, "You realize one of these days she may be going on a real date, right? She's gorgeous, boss. And I doubt she'll be single forever. Maybe you should, uh, make your move." Havoc had leaned in towards Roy as he spoke. Roy crinkled his nose at all the smoke pluming around his friend. He waved a hand in front of his face in a desperate attempt to whisk the smoke in a different direction. The strong scent of Havoc's beverage wafted into Roy's nostrils as well as he held it up in front of him, toasting the air, and then taking a heavy swig. Roy took a quick sip of his one drink. He hated to admit that Havoc was right, but he knew he was. Roy still couldn't believe someone like Riza had remained single all of these years. She was far too perfect to live the rest of her life working for him then going home to a vacant house. Roy grimaced. It was selfish, he knew, but he couldn't stand the idea of Riza going home, unlacing her boots, then throwing her arms around a beloved that wasn't him. Her soft lips tilting up into a smile she reserved only for the man she would give herself to, "How was your day?" No. Fuck that. Roy took another couple of swigs from his drink as a desperate attempt to drown out these horrible, heart-wrenching thoughts. She wouldn't. She couldn't. She was too involved in Roy's goals to become the Fuhrer and change this country. She wouldn't just give all that up, all that they had worked for thus far, at the drop of a hat for some man… would she?

Roy was obviously very lost in thought over what Havoc had said to him. He hated seeing his commanding officer looking so down-heartened but he also hated that he had to spell these things out to the man. After all the women Roy had stolen from him, he kind of wondered why he wanted to help him so badly get this woman. Deep down, he knew the answer: they loved each other. Havoc wasn't naïve. He saw the way their stares would linger even just a fraction of a second longer than necessary when speaking to each other. Even on his bad days, Roy was never harsh to her like he was to the rest of them. The rare smiles Hawkeye would offer Roy when she thought no one else was watching. Hell, they had both proven that they would willingly throw away their own life to protect the other one or even at the thought of living life without the other one. It was ridiculous, really, how blatantly obvious their feelings for each other were but neither could do anything about it due to those damned fraternization laws. Havoc had almost forgotten about that. He was stuck in a chick flick as the "good guy friend" that was attempting to help his buddy figure out his own feelings then ultimately get the girl. However, this wasn't a movie. This wasn't going to end that way for his higher ups, and sadly enough, it sucked. Havoc took another deep drag from his cigarette, letting the smoke out slowly. He snuck a carefully concealed glance over his shoulder to see if Hawkeye was still standing at the bar, waiting for her drink order to be filled. Instead, he found her last position vacant. His eyes began scanning the dance floor for that familiar blonde beauty amongst the many other patrons swaying and moving to the music. His commanding officer stiffened in his seat next to him, causing him to break away from his eye venture and look at him for any indication as to what was causing him such tension. Mustang's fists were once again balled up tightly. His eyes were cut slits in an angry glare at whatever sight he was observing out on the dance floor. Havoc followed his gaze; he wished he hadn't. His heart dropped. This wasn't good. Riza was dancing close; _very_ close to Tallen with a playful smile on her lips. Tallen's eyes glistened dangerously in the dim lighting of the room, not ever leaving her frame. The song ended and turned to a slower number with an awkward beat, so Tallen decided they should sit this one out. He held out his hand for hers and led her over to a table in the corner.

"What a fucking _gentleman._ No really, how _considerate_ of him." Roy mumbled under his breath as he watched Tallen pull out the chair for Riza to sit then proceeded to sit down in the one right next to her; too close to her if you were to ask Mustang. Roy didn't think he could tighten his fists any tighter. The feeling had once against escaped his fingertips and the bruxism had returned as he ground his teeth together. Havoc was also watching them intently. Riza crossed her legs, forcing the already short dress to go farther up her thighs. Tallen scooted closer to her, whispering yet again into the woman's ear. But this time, he placed his palm on her thigh, running his thumb in small circles against her knee. Mustang growled.

Havoc rested a hand on Roy's shoulder. "Do you need to step outside to cool down?" He whispered it in a low enough voice that only Roy could hear. He didn't know what was getting into him. He had witnessed _Elizabeth_ on numerous missions. She would flirt, flip her hair, get the information they were looking for, then pull out her pistol from where ever she had stowed it and ruin the target's day by announcing she was military and not definitely not interested; his favorite part. However, for some reason, this mission made his stomach lurch. There was something about this man and something about the way she acted like Greggs was the only man in this bar tonight. She was acting. He had to keep repeating this to himself, but it didn't seem to help tonight. Roy downed his drink, yet again losing track of the amount he had been consuming, before standing from his stool. "I need some air. Keep an eye on her." Roy wiped at his brow with the back of his arm. This isn't okay. He shouldn't be like this. She wasn't even _his. But she is._ He thought foolishly. He shook the thought of Tallen's hand on her thigh, her laughing at his comments, her wearing a dress like that for someone else.

Roy threw the door open, stepping out into the deserted Central street. The wind was light, but cool. It was relaxing after suffocating in that crowded bar. The smell of smoke, stale beer, and sweat all seemed to vanish in the wind and was replaced with that delicious autumn scent. He took in a deep breath in a desperate attempt to calm his beating heart. Roy pinched the bridge of his nose, only to be reminded that his gloves were still sopping wet from the filthy floor and probably from busting the cup at the bar. _Useless,_ the word was never a favorite of his. It left an acidic tinge at the tip of his tongue when he even thought it. He yanked each glove off individually, shoving them into his pocket. Roy took a few more breaths before deciding he needed to get back inside and make sure the target wasn't copping a feel on his precious subordinate. Roy turned away from the shadowed buildings around him and headed back for the door to the bar. He could hear the music out here, bumping loudly from the radio. The memory of Riza dancing so closely to that disgusting pervert was suddenly thrust back into his mind. "Dammit!" His fist met the heavy metal door. He huffed, he clearly needed more time to cool off.

"Or another drink." Roy stated aloud to himself. "Yeah, another one of those will do." He muttered once again to the darkness. He forced the door open and proceeded back to his previous seat beside Havoc, lifting a hand to the bartender in a lazy attempt to get his attention for a refill. Havoc eyed his superior, already in the process of lighting another cigarette. "You alright, boss?" Roy ran his gloveless hand down his face. "Fine, fine." He muttered in reply before picking up the fresh glass in front of him and throwing it back. The whiskey stung the back of his throat, but it elicited a warming sensation from his fingertips, branching out to touch every nerve ending in his body. He ordered another for himself and his friend, even offering to pay for them.

"Maybe you should slow it down… I know you are upset, and I know you can drink quite a bit, Roy, but I also know what you are doing." All signs of amusement were gone from Havoc's features. Roy was not paying him any mind, though. Instead, he proceeded to chase the first drink with the second. "And what am I doing exactly, Havoc?" His eyes were focused on the three ice cubes at the bottom of his now empty glass as he spoke. The ice gently swirled around, clinking against the sides of the small glass as Mustang tilted it back and forth. His thoughts were clearly elsewhere, but Havoc responded anyway.

"Liquor courage, right? You think that will save your ass? I just don't see why you can't play the jealous boyfriend role another night. This is too important for you to blow all because of your damn pride." A humorless chuckle left Roy's lips. "You know me too well, Jean. But I'm thinking tonight is the _perfect_ night for a jealous boyfriend." He set the empty glass back down with a new devious glint in his dark eyes. Havoc hated seeing that look in his superior's eyes, it was always a sign that he was about to do something irrational or reckless. "Roy, what are you thinking?" He ran a hand through his unruly, black hair. "You're relieved, Second Lieutenant. Take the rest of the night off."

Havoc couldn't believe his ears. "Like hell I will!" He threw his fist into his own knee to accentuate his frustration. Roy spun around a little too quickly, searching the room with his eyes. "There she is," He grinned, hopping up from his barstool. "Boss…" Havoc was attempting to sound stern, but sounded more urgent than anything. He couldn't imagine what Hawkeye's reaction would be if he allowed Roy to walk over there while she was undercover and talking to their target. He began climbing down from his perch just as Roy wafted his hand at him in response. "Ah calm down, Havoc. My gloves are soaked so threat neutralized." His hands found the pockets of his pants as he approached the couple across the way. He barely heard Havoc's worried words as he continued walking, "You better know what you are doing. She'll be pissed if you fuck this up." Roy lifted a hand above his head, waving back to his subordinate to show he heard him loud and clear but gave no indication of giving up on this decided endeavor.

She was giggling softly again with those soft, delicate fingers pressed lightly against her lips to give her that innocent appearance. Roy felt his heartbeat quicken as he stopped directly behind her, not even giving Greggs a second of a glance, "Well, well, hello beautiful." Her back stiffened at the sound of his voice over the music. He didn't break his gaze with the back of her head, but he knew Tallen was eyeing him from his position beside Riza, or rather, _Elizabeth._ She slowly turned around. The look on her face told Roy she was quickly debating on where her first bullet was going to go, but Roy casually glanced down at the shocked woman's empty hand then back up to meet her scolding, amber eyes. Her jaw had slacked slightly in surprise upon his abrupt interruption but she had quickly composed herself. Roy merely plastered that cocky, lopsided grin of his on his lips as he playfully remarked, "You look parched. Can I buy you a drink?"

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 **Author's Note:** **And that's chapter one for ya. The next chapter will begin with Riza's point of view on this whole endeavor then proceed from where this chapter leaves off. Anyway, drop me a review and tell me what you think so far, please!**


	2. Chapter 2: Mission Compromised

**Author's Note: Well, hello again. I'm really enjoying writing this story. I haven't written in quite some time. As many of you know, life steps in the way and makes it extremely difficult to find the time or the motivation to work on your stories. But I'm on break with school for the next few weeks, so I'm going to try to get this all finished before I go back, and put a chapter out each week (at least), but I'm not going to make you all an empty promise. This is just something I'm going to TRY to do. I have work, a kid, family, and many other things going on as well so I'll update as frequently as I can manage! Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying this story so far. This chapter is where things will take a bit of a turn. Let me know what you think.**

 **Also, thank you so much to those of you who reviewed and followed this story already! It really makes me happy to see anyone enjoying my work! ^.^ And honestly, seeing that I have someone specific to be updating for really pushes me to churn these chapters out so yay! Lol I hope you enjoy where this story is heading.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own FMAB or any of their characters. I only own the idea of this story and my OCs.**

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Chapter Two:

 _Mission Compromised_

Everything was going fine; she had managed to snag the attention of the target within moments of entering the bar. She assumed this would be just like any other undercover operation: flirt a little, feign interest until the man was either intoxicated enough by the liquor or by lust to reveal the necessary information needed to arrest them, then hold them at gun point while the team put them in handcuffs and towed them back to headquarters. Unfortunately, Riza wasn't expecting the Colonel to behave like an errant child. He was never a fan of her Elizabeth persona when it came to missions like these, but for some reason, he was misbehaving more than usual with this one.

Riza heard a loud clatter from where her teammates were seated at the bar and managed to sneak a glance in that direction. Havoc was lying atop of Roy, both groaning in pain from the fall. She flashed a smile at Tallen, hoping the men wouldn't draw his attention. "Are you thirsty? How about I go get us another drink?" He managed a smirk, nodding in approval, before heading off to the bathroom. Those men were going to get it. Her fingers were twitching, begging for the trigger of her concealed weapon as she approached the two men still lying in a heap on the filthy floor. "Colonel?" Elizabeth was gone. Riza's typical, detached military tone was back in place. Roy sat up, grumbling and rubbing at his shoulder where he must have landed. Her patience was wearing thin; this guy, Tallen Greggs, was a dangerous criminal and she has been doing everything in her power tonight to lure him into confessing something of value to her so that they could finally lock him up. However, the Colonel seemed to be desperately trying everything in his power to prevent this mission from being a success.

Riza let out an exasperated sigh. "Sir, get up before you ruin this mission. Do you need to go on outside watch with Falman and Breda? Or perhaps I should just send you home for the night to cool off?" She knew her voice had a slight edge of annoyance to it, but she couldn't help it. Riza knew Roy was jealous; of what, she was not sure. It's not like this is a real date with a real guy. This is an undercover operation to bring a terrible criminal to justice. He acts like _he's_ the one that is constantly being forced to watch _her_ go out on date after date with someone different every day of the week while _he_ goes home every night alone. She tried to shake the jealous thoughts away. This was neither the time nor the location that such thoughts should be plaguing her. Still, it felt nice seeing him so flustered over another man paying her attention.

Roy finally managed to heave Havoc off of him, brushing invisible dust from the front of his white button up. He made a sour face, realizing his gloves were soaked from something wet on the floor. "Or maybe we should abandon this mission. It's getting too dangerous. And how am I ruining the mission when you are over here talking to us? He's going to notice." Roy's lips tilted up into that familiar devilish grin and it took everything in her power to remain stoic, not allowing her heart to dance at the sight of the handsome man's signature crooked smile. Riza nodded her head towards the doors to the left of them at the far end of the crowded room. "He went to the restroom and asked me to get us another drink. He hasn't given me much to go on yet, so we aren't quite done here." she brushed her hair back over her shoulder, not truly thinking about how much of her cleavage was visible until she watched Roy's eyes travel along every curve of her body in this too tight dress. She felt the heat rising to her cheeks without her permission, but luckily Roy was too busy eyeing the rest of her to notice it. "You look beautiful tonight by the way, Lieutenant." There was another blush rushing to her cheeks, but she quickly willed it away. "Thank you, sir. But I would rather get this over with so I can get out of this dress and these heels so please... behave yourself?" He continued looking at her with that devilish look in his eyes, "If you are in such a hurry to get out of that dress, I would gladly assist you." Riza's stomach did a nervous flip at the flirtatious ramblings of her superior. "Very funny, sir. Just behave yourself."

She threatened them once more, before taking her leave to go order the drinks. She could feel Roy's eyes on her as she walked away, and even as she was standing there at the bar speaking to the bartender. "Hey, sweetheart, needing another drink?" The bartender asked her. Riza's eyebrow twitched at the _adorable_ little pet name. The man had been kind enough to her since ordering her first drink, but now she was beginning to think he was getting _too_ comfortable. She tried to suppress the urge to say something snarky and simply flashed him her famous Elizabeth smile. "Yes, please. A rum and soda and a-"

The sound of something shattering cut her off. She twisted her head around, eyeing her superior once again, flashing him a confused glance. _How did I know it was going to be him again causing chaos?_ He grinned from ear to ear, opening his palm to allow the shards of glass to trickle down into a pile on the bartop. "heh, oops." The bartender rolled his eyes, clearly not in the mood to deal with the Colonel's shenanigans. _You're not the only one._ "Excuse me for just a moment. Let me take care of this situation and then I'll get that drink order for you." She nodded to him before turning her attention back to Roy and Havoc. Havoc's back was to her, but Roy was seated to where he was slightly facing her direction. She couldn't hear what he was saying to the bartender, but suddenly out of nowhere, Roy's innocent grin was quickly replaced with a very serious glare and his hand lashed out, grabbing the front of the bartender's shirt. Roy pulled the stranger into him until their eyes were mere inches from each other. She may not have been able to hear what was being said, but she knew Roy well enough, that it was probably something to do with her. As if on cue, the bartender and Roy both glanced in Riza's direction at the same time. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention away from them. _I knew it. Dammit, Roy._ Roy released the bartender's shirt and they were now smiling at each other like Roy hadn't just man-handled him. He started to walk back in Riza's direction, but quickly ducked his head and walked right passed her without even a fleeting glance, heading straight for the already-intoxicated, scantily dressed females at the very end of the bar. "Are you kidding me…" She grumbled to herself.

Havoc was now shaking his head while digging in the pocket of his shirt, probably longing for a cigarette; she didn't blame him. Babysitting the Colonel could sometimes be strenuous, especially on a night like tonight where he's just itching for trouble. Her eyes were shooting daggers at the handsome man she was plotting to shoot in the foot at this point, but he merely met her gaze, grinning like he just won some nonexistent game, and held up his glass as if to cheers to making this mission more of a pain than it needed to be, then took a sip of it; his eyes never leaving hers. She glared at him before finally determining that it was a wasted endeavor, and headed back over to where Tallen was now standing, waiting for Elizabeth's return. He eyed her empty hands and frowned. "Oh, I thought you were getting us another drink." She put a hand on her hip, gesturing towards the bartender with her thumb. "I tried. He just walked right passed me and refused to take my order. I'm sorry," She flashed him a convincingly remorseful frown, causing him to smile down at her and run his index finger along her jawline. Riza shuttered internally at his touch, but hid it flawlessly. He leaned in a bit closer, "Don't be. We can get another drink later on if you'd like."

Just then, a man with two woman dressed in elegant floor-length dresses, one on each arm, was walking by until he noticed Tallen. The newcomer unlatched himself from the woman on his left, extending a hand out to the criminal beside Riza. "Ah, Mr. Greggs, how have you been?" Tallen returned the handshake politely. "Tad, it's been too long, hasn't it? I've been wonderful. Busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way." They both chuckled. Tad was clearly also a businessman from the way he was dressed; black suit and tie, expensive watch on his wrist, and Riza was pretty good at judging a person's assets just by how they carried themselves. This man radiated confidence and luxury, just as Tallen did. "I haven't heard from you since our deal fell through with the Virtues' Co. agreement. What happened with that anyway?" The man's tone held an underlying hint of resentment at the talk of his apparent company being turned down by the man beside her. She watched Tallen's face, noting that he gave away nothing to the man whom was still gripping his hand in a tight handshake. Tallen flashed him a sorrowful smile. "I'm sorry about that, Tad. Unfortunately, there were some conflicting ideas between myself and your head of affairs. Had you discussed the agreement with me personally instead of insulting my company by sending a low key player to seal the deal, perhaps we would be meeting on better terms." Tallen continued to give away nothing with his expression; he merely maintained the same unreadable gleam in his eye, that sideways smile matched perfectly with his nonchalant tone.

"It shouldn't have required my attendance. We had already discussed everything before the paper signing was to take place." Tallen finally removed his hand from the now obviously angry man before him, allowing his palm to meet the small of Riza's back and pulled her closer to his side. She played along, flawlessly turning her body towards him and rested her hand against his chest. "I've heard enough of this. Now if you'll excuse me, this is my night away from the office so I'd rather not discuss such matters. Have a good evening, Tad." He nodded to the gentlemen in front of them who was perceptibly still fuming at being blown off. Tallen then nodded to the two ladies on either side of Tad, "Ladies," They each blushed and let out a chorus of giggles.

Tallen Greggs: he was a criminal. One that until recently had been a very successful criminal. However, he was also a very attractive and clever man. Yes, Riza had looked at his file. There was quite a bit of information on him, but very little about his illegal activities. He had been rather flawless at maintaining a good team that refused to betray him over the years; all except one: Ronald Hodge. A low-life criminal that had probably been hired by Greggs as a lazy attempt to ease his workings into the grungier bits of Central: through illegal drug sells and prostitution. Ronald had been arrested numerous times on unrelated drug charges and a couple of assault charges on a few of his prostitutes when they refused to pay up at the end of a shift. He didn't strike Riza as the "pimp" type when she had first saw Ronald. He was small, not in height, but in bulk. He seemed fidgety and unsure of himself; constantly fiddling his thumbs behind the bars of his cell or munching on his lip nervously. He had been covered in scabs and scars, whether they were from his continued drug abuse or from the woman he recently attacked, she was unsure. All in all, after thoroughly reading through Tallen Gregg's file, this Ronald did not seem like the type Greggs would typically hire or even spare a passing glance to. He had his own company, one that crafted and sold many different experimental weapons to the military. Their specialty, however, was sniper rifles, shockingly enough. He built the company himself with the help of his long-time childhood friend, Atticus Parker. This man was also said, according to Ronald, to aid in the more illegal side of Gregg's operations. She knew this man was bad, but really, he was surprisingly good at hiding it. He had been respectful the entire time she had been in his presence. He was kind, polite, and she hated that the thought even crossed her mind, but he was _gorgeous._ With short, perfectly styled blonde hair, piercing emerald eyes, which was a rarity in this part of Amestris, and a smile that made her almost blush every time he flashed it at her. No. Riza Hawkeye did _not_ blush, not that easily, not unless it was…a certain someone _else_ causing it. Something about those eyes and that smile were hauntingly familiar to her, but she figured it was because of how many times she had reviewed his file and saw his pictures in it.

She reminded herself the only reason she was probably feeling like this, so giddy, was because she rarely dated anyone. Sure, she had gone out on a few dates with a few different suitors over the years but it never amounted to much. No one could keep her attention for long without her thoughts turning to thoughts of _him._ So for the past year she has turned down anyone that has asked her to dinner or to anywhere else for that matter. She would continue to turn down any chance at finally not having to go home alone every night, while Roy continued to tramps around with a different woman for every day of the week, never going home to a lonely little apartment without having some form of comfort and company. Riza tried to convince herself she wasn't jealous of the women; she was jealous that he could go out and do the things he does without thinking of her when she can't seem to even make it through dinner with another man without comparing every little thing they do to her superior. She shook the thoughts away. This was not the time or the place. No, it may be an Intel mission, but Riza was allowed to enjoy herself regardless; to enjoy being the center of attention for someone even if it were someone like Greggs. She deserved to feel like a woman occasionally, a _normal, wanted_ woman. She felt a small smile tug at the edges of her lips as another thought crossed her mind _, and for once,_ he _can watch._

She ran her slender fingers down the lapel of Gregg's shirt. "So who was that, Tallen?" Her voice cooed, feigning innocent curiosity. Tallen looked down at her, meeting her gaze with that same crooked, cocky grin; revealing nothing in his stare. "Just someone my company was planning on doing business with. It fell through; as I'm sure you had already picked up on." He shrugged as if it was as simple as that, but by the animosity in Tad's eyes, Riza doubted it was anything simple. He held his hand over hers, the one by his collar and pulled it gently away, leading her over to the dance floor. "Shall we?" Riza could feel that heated gaze of Roy's from across the room as if he were attempting to burn them both with his flame alchemy through his stare. She gave Tallen a shy nod and allowed the man to pull her closer to himself as they began swaying along to the quick tune. They seemed far more graceful than the other patrons dancing around them, considering everyone else seemed a little less coordinated from their obvious over-consumption and many were dancing quite off-beat. They danced along to the music until a slower song began to play and Tallen suggested they take a break from the dance floor and have a seat. She happily obliged. She wasn't used to wearing heels, so all of this activity while her toes were pinched up in these fancy shoes was making them ache. Tallen pulled out her chair for her before taking the seat beside her and sitting far closer than absolutely necessary, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she crossed her legs, feeling the thin material of the dress ride up her thigh as she did so.

To be fair, she knew the missions where she had to dress as Elizabeth were not Roy's favorites. The moment the missions would be assigned to them, he would keep to himself more except for making the occasional threat about what he would do to the perp if they got too touchy-feely with his subordinate. Then he would stare at her from his desk in their office every chance he thought she wasn't paying attention. The few times she would look up to meet his glance, his eyes held a hint of worry before he would break eye contact and look back down at the paperwork in front of him. However, he was usually far more behaved on the actual mission itself. He wouldn't leave his post, he'd keep his wits about him and not over-indulge in alcoholic beverages, and he would be there the instant she gave him the signal with his fingers ready to snap. For some reason, he was acting completely out of character on this mission. Making a scene by falling out of his seat over at the bar, telling the bartender to stop serving her, and then of course, there was the very blatant, very obvious way he was staring at her and Tallen from across the room. They may as well have worn their military attire tonight, with how noticeable the Colonel was making them. She was just thankful Havoc had managed to keep him from coming over here and making an even bigger scene with the violent criminal at her side, his thumb rotating in circles against her bare knee. "You know, I love your hair color. Is it natural?" She forced out a playful giggle. "Oh, thank you. Yes it is, actually." She felt her trigger finger twitch slightly at the sudden change in conversation; one of the reasons she had volunteered for this mission was because she fit the profile of his previous victims; all of the victims had been blonde, ages ranging between 24-26, and all around her height of 5'6". She hid her nervousness flawlessly as he gave her a terrifyingly hungry grin.

"Well, well, hello beautiful." That voice. Her back tensed. No way, there was no way. He couldn't seriously be that stupid. As she turned around and her eyes met those deep onyx orbs staring back at her, she realized that he was indeed, that stupid. She was shooting daggers. Roy's gaze fell to her empty hands then met her eyes once again, "You look parched. Can I buy you a drink?" She scowled at him. This was a joke to him. They had developed a keen ability over the years to understand one another's unspoken words simply through each other's eyes or body language. She knew he could read her loud and clear, _'I have my gun.'_ She was actually contemplating pulling it out and directing it at the handsome, cocky man smirking at her. His grin broadened as he read her eyes. She was just about to reach down and lace her fingers around the hidden holster on the inside of her thigh housing a very petite pistol and point it at her superior. Why not? Roy had already compromised the mission by coming over here and making his presence known. Just then, Tallen stood up and politely extended a hand to Roy. "I'm sure she would love a drink. A rum and soda, right, love?" His deep voice sounded calm, as if he suspected nothing by Roy's intervention other than polite pleasantries. Roy's eyes narrowed momentarily at the man beside her as he said the word _'love.'_ Tallen rested his fingertips against Elizabeth's shoulder as he questioned her drink order. She flashed him her most flirtatious smile, making sure that Roy was watching her, "You got it." She flipped a few strands of hair over her shoulder before finally turning her smoldering gaze back to her superior.

"Unfortunately, the bartender is a real prick and for some _strange reason_ decided to stop serving me." She rested her chin in her palm. Riza gave Roy a knowing glance. Roy was still staring at her. Something glinted across his face for a brief moment, "Huh, is that so? It's probably because he didn't want such a beautiful woman to lose her inhibitions in a place like this." She narrowed her eyes at him. "He runs a bar. If he planned on behaving so nobly for every woman that stepped foot into this place, he would be out of business." Roy allowed a light chuckle to leave his lips. She hated to admit it, but even now, fuming at the irrational man, his laugh still made her heart dance. "Yeah, you're probably right. Silly me." his eyes were shimmering strangely in the dim light; oh no. He was enjoying this. He really wanted to mess this up, but why? She couldn't think about that right now; she had to get rid of him before he compromised their positions further. She waved him off. "The offer was nice, sir, but if you'd be so kind," She rested her hand on Tallen's thigh, indicating that it was his time to leave. "We were right in the middle of something."

Tallen smiled at Elizabeth, draping an arm behind her back. Roy's eyes narrowed. If she thought he was going anywhere while the hand that had saved his life so many times was resting on _that guys_ leg, she was crazy. He was thankful his hands were back in his pockets, because they were once against balled into fists and itching to snap. _If only my gloves were dry…_ "Oh _Elizabeth,_ don't act like I'm a stranger." He observed her eyebrow cock in confusion. She had no idea where he was going with this giving him the upper hand. Tallen was looking between the two people, obviously confused with the events that were transpiring. The woman's jaw was tight as she spoke, attempting to keep the anger from her voice. "I think you are confused."

Roy shook his head slowly, that cocky grin still plastered across his lips. "Are you embarrassed of me or something?" He was being playful but she was not in the mood for this game. Greggs apparently wasn't in the mood for sharing because he was getting a little fed up with this newcomer stealing the attention from his girl for the night. He glared at Roy, "Who the hell are you?" Roy turned his attention to Tallen. All signs of fun and games had vanished as he shrugged, hands still in his pockets. "I'm her boyfriend."

Elizabeth's jaw fell. He wasn't serious. What the hell was he doing?! Luckily, Tallen just tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her closer into him. "It doesn't look that way to me." He was taunting Roy at this point, flashing his teeth at the undercover officer. Roy's jaw tightened, "I have no problem breaking that arm off if you want to test me." Riza was impressed she was still even able to hear them with all of the blood flooding to her ears. This was not going to end well. No matter what it came down to, she had already played out a number of scenarios, none of which had an ending that she wanted to experience. "Okay, that's enough you two." She spoke in her soft almost playful Elizabeth voice, but annoyingly enough, neither man paid her any mind. Tallen rested the hand that wasn't wrapped around Riza's waist against her knee. "Oh? Is that what you think?" Tallen lowered his head, glaring at Roy from beneath his lashes in a very intimidating way. "Why don't you try it."

Roy balled his hands into fists, taking a step towards Tallen. Riza hurriedly held up her palm to Roy's chest from where she sat and glared at him with a knowing glance he was all too familiar with. It was the look that told him to trust her, and to behave himself. "Enough." Her voice was low and barely above a whisper but it was borderline terrifying if you asked Roy. He stared into her eyes for a second longer before allowing his fists to loosen at his sides. Tallen chuckled. He threw one leg over the other, running his thumb in circles against Riza's bare knee. "That's what I thought. I promise you, it was a smart move on your part." Before Roy had a chance to rebuttle with any kind of sarcastic response, Tallen's attention turned to something behind Roy with an amused smirk. "You might wanna check on your buddy over there. He looks a little worse for wear."

Roy and Riza both turned to look at where Havoc was, his shoulders were slumped over and his head was resting against the bar top, clearly unconscious. Roy turned his attention back to the woman who's hand was still on that damn disgusting monster's thigh, but he knew he needed to check on his partner. He growled, deciding to drop this little tiff for the moment to go check on Havoc. He was only a couple of feet from the unconscious man and could now see a half burnt cigarette sticking out of his slack mouth. "Havoc, you son of a bitch." Roy reached his friend in a few strides and stopped right beside him. Something wasn't right. He grabbed Havoc's shoulder and shook him gently. When he had no response, Roy shook him more vigorously, desperate to awaken his Second Lieutenant. "Havoc, wake up!"

Suddenly, the edges of Roy's vision began to fade into black. He grabbed onto the bar with one hand to steady himself. Everything around him began spinning. He cradled the side of his head with his free hand, hoping it would calm the waves of nausea overpowering him. What… What is going on…." He had to get outside and flag down their other men, tell them that something was wrong. Unfortunately, just as he released the edge of the bar, his legs turned to liquid and his knees caved under his weight, leading him to crash into the ground. How in the hell were there so many people in this place, but not one person found it strange that he was on the ground? No one even spared him a second glance hardly, as if him lying on the grimy ground of this gross place was a completely normal thing to be doing. He had honestly forgotten where they were: a bar. A place people frequently overindulge in their vices and end up in compromising situations, whether that is the position Roy was currently in or something worse. Roy was trying to think of how this could have happened. He had been drugged, that much was obvious, but when? And by who? _Oh no, did Greggs somehow do this? If he did, then that means…_ "Lieutenant…" His eyes were desperately darting around the crowded room for any sign of the blonde beauty. He had to be sure she was safe. He finally caught sight of her, but something was wrong. He knew her well enough; he could see it in the stiffness of her back, in the mild furrow of her brow. The corner of her lip was pulled down, only enough for someone that spent half of his days at work stealing glances of her to notice. His vision was fading fast now. Her figure was slowly morphing into a blurry blob of black, blonde, and even those perfectly sculpted tan legs of hers were no longer visible behind the colored dots tainting his gaze. "Lieutenant!" He didn't know if the word actually left his lips or not, because at that point, conscious failed him. The last thing he remembered was a menacing shadow hovering over him just before he completely blacked out.

* * *

Riza smiled at the criminal. "Sorry about that, he's an ex of mine… a little obsessive." Tallen's eyes were piercing; it felt almost like they were seeing through her. She felt so small under his intimidating gaze, which was something she rarely ever felt when facing down an enemy, though she would never admit he intimidated her. That would give him the power and make her appear weak. She couldn't place exactly what it was about the man that had her on edge all of a sudden and had all of her instincts screaming at her to run; this man was dangerous and the look he was giving her right now sent a tremor of fear down her spine with its familiarity. All night, he had actually been decent company to keep: for a criminal. There was just something sinister behind those twinkling eyes, something she couldn't quite place but that she knew she didn't like. His grin was gone as he just continued to stare at her. She leaned her shoulder into his chest playfully, "What?"

The man let out a sigh, shaking his head back a forth. "I'm sad to ruin this fine evening, but the time has come. I know who you are working for." His thumb continued in small circles against her knee, only now it felt a little too aggressive. She would've pushed him away, but didn't want to alert her team to her distress just yet. She still had a chance to redeem this and she was also hoping to convince him that he was wrong. Elizabeth smiled innocently, leaning in closer to the man until their lips were mere inches apart. She bit her lower lip seductively, "Do you accuse every woman you meet of being part of some kind of conspiracy? I mean, if you're into role play we can…" She ran her fingers down one of his legs. Her own words and actions were giving her acid reflux. She hated being Elizabeth with these perverts, except on the occasions when she got to chat with Roy as the fun, light-hearted persona. That was the only time she truly enjoyed her alter-ego.

The man eyed her, looking her up and down with hungry eyes. "First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye; "The Hawk's Eye" and Colonel Roy Mustang's right hand man and bodyguard. Yes, I know who that man was before he even approached us. He's not very discreet by the way. You are the only daughter of the late Berthold Hawkeye, the infamous recluse alchemist; the selfish prick that refused to share any of his important research with anyone else…" Something flashed in his eyes. "…except his last apprentice." She felt the color draining from her face. There was no way to talk her way back out of this one. He knew exactly who she was and who Roy had been this entire time. He may even know of the research tattooed to her back. The criminal's lips tipped up into a lecherous, knowing grin. "I did my research, just as you did. I know that rat Ronny told you everything when he got arrested. I never trusted that little shit, but luckily, I have plans for him once he's released from custody." Riza would worry about getting Ronald a security team to protect him once she was out of the danger zone. She casually twirled her hair around her index finger at an attempt to seem nonchalant. "What do you want, Tallen? If you knew it was me this whole time, knew what I was up to, there is a reason you stayed." He forced the frustration from his features, grinning once more. "I want that research, sweetheart." His calloused hand felt rough and uninviting as it moved farther up her thigh. "I have a feeling you know where to find it. And of course, even if you are a dead end, who says we can't still have a little fun?" Riza felt something burn the back of her throat at the suggestive way this creep was whispering to her and the proximity in which they were in. The edges of her lips tugged down in an almost unnoticeable frown. Her eyebrows pulled together in defeat.

She was done with this. Mission over. She stood up quickly from her chair, hands on the table to steady herself. What was happening? Her head was suddenly swimming through a murky pond. Colorful dots were exploding on the outside edges of her vision. "Wh-what...?" She had been smart. She refused to let Tallen order her a drink, even after Roy paid the bartender to cut her off. She knew better than to let someone with a reputation like Gregg's to order her a beverage, or even be near her beverage. But she could feel it; she had been drugged. When? How? Tallen let out a bone chilling cackle. She didn't know when he got there, but his hands were now around her; one resting on her lower back and one was gripping her forearm. To any passing patron, it would simply look like she were plastered in the bar and the emgentleman/em to her left was simply assisting her. Her head felt heavy. She could barely hold it up at this point; it nodded to the front before lolling to the side. She fought against his hold, but knew it was futile. _My pistol, I have my pistol!_ The thought was a hopeful one until she realized how dangerous it would be to try shooting in the state she was in with civilians all around them.

She stole a glance to the bar where Roy and Havoc had been observing her but found Havoc in his previous state of unconsciousness and Roy was on the ground; his eyes, while staring in her direction, were distant and unresponsive before they closed in what she assumed was the same state of consciousness that Havoc and soon herself were in. Panic coursed through her veins; this man was dangerous. Riza shoved at his chest with a weak palm eliciting another amused cackle from the criminal. "C'mon, sweetheart. Time to get you out of here." _No._ She thought desperately, _No, no, stop! What is happening?_ "I was…you drug…" She couldn't form a coherent sentence. This is why she didn't drink, why she insisted on her fellow team members not to drink. It was so easy for their enemy to take them down. Just looking away for a minute and your drink could be drugged. Tallen's lips were against Riza's ear. "Yeah. The bartender is one of my men; he works for me. I had him drug your drink, actually. I also had him do the same to your friends." He was smiling. She could tell; she could hear it in his voice. Her stomach dropped to the floor. That's why Havoc was passed out at the bar. That's why Roy was lying on the ground. She cursed internally. Why the Colonel couldn't have managed to get Havoc and himself out of there before the drug's effect took place?

She hadn't realized Tallen had begun walking her towards the back entrance of the bar until the cool night air blew through her hair and against her cheeks. She wasn't going to be able to stay conscious. This was bad, really bad. She had to get out of this situation and keep this dangerous man away from Roy and Jean. But how? She could already feel her limbs getting more and more sluggish and heavy. Her vision refused to focus which was making it difficult to see her surroundings and to stay standing upright without the assistance of the man beside her. The heels she had chosen tonight were not helping her balance at all at this point.

"The colonel is passed out inside; grab him. I know they have three other men in their team, so keep an eye out for any vantage points that they could be posted up at. I'll get the girl into the van and then we are going to head out. You know which warehouse we are going to? Warehouse seven. That's where all my toys are." Tallen grinned. His plan had been going flawlessly so far. And thanks to Mustang's little "display" all night, Tallen now knew Riza and the Colonel did not have a typical commanding officer to subordinate relationship. No, there was clearly more to it than that. Mustang made it all too obvious how jealous he was. Now he just had to use this known weakness to his advantage to get the information he so desperately desired.

Tallen grabbed Riza by the waist with his rough hands, throwing her into the back of the van. She was yelling inside, silently screaming in a desperate attempt to stay conscious long enough to at least find out where she was being taken and where her teammates were at. She shook her head back and forth, trying to stay up. Her eyelids were getting heavy. She tried lifting her head from the cold, metal of the van floor, but she couldn't even lift it an inch off the ground. Riza strained her ears, hearing two men talking outside of the van. She could only make out a few words from each sentence, "Warehouse seven… Red district? ….alchemy…." The woman could hear heavy boots against gravel as the men outside of the van began walking away in the opposite direction.

Consciousness was not coming easily to her at this point. She always considered herself a strong woman. Someone that can handle quite a bit of emotional or physical torture to a degree due to all of her extra training in torture techniques and tricks for intelligence protection if captured. She knew she was an amazing shot, she also knew her life's worth in comparison to Roy and the rest of their team. She would gladly lay down her own life for theirs. She knew she lasted a lot longer under the influence of whatever drug it was Tallen had given her than many people could, but it was worth nothing if she couldn't at least learn something about where they were being taken or where Roy and Jean were at or anything else helpful. Riza couldn't take it anymore; her eyelids slowly fell closed over her amber eyes and her entire body was overcome with a sudden numbing sensation just before she completely gave in to the darkness.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Duh, duh, duh. lol Please let me know what you think in a review! ^_^**


	3. Chapter 3: Waking Up

**AN: Hello, hello! I want to begin by apologizing for the wait on this chapter. Bit of writer's block mixed with some very busy months (college, family get togethers, and starting up a different story that I've become consumed with—oops.)**

 **By the way, I love Hughes, so um, he's still alive.**

 **I do want to say thank you to those of you who left a review on the previous two chapters! I'm glad that you are enjoying this story! Please continue to let me know if there is anything I can do to make this story more enjoyable for you guys or if you are still entertained or not. ;)**

 **And here… we… go.**

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Chapter 3:

 _Waking Up_

 _Roy's POV_

I've waited forever for this moment; I honestly never expected it to actually happen. Sure, I've day dreamed about this exact scenario many times while lazing about in the office, discreetly eyeing the beautiful blonde working diligently away on the mundane assignments of the day. She had a certain grace when she signed each document, placing each one delicately atop the rest in a neatly organized stack. I never understood how those hands could be so graceful when they were known for being so deadly. Her hands had done many things in her short life; they had saved so many lives, counting my own on numerous occasions, but they have also destroyed countless families. If not for the talent behind those fingertips, I would have been snuffed out long ago. While she had plenty else about her to be admired: her amber eyes, her rare little smiles, those slender, never ending legs; I always found myself watching her hands. Oh how I longed to feel what those graceful yet powerful fingers could do when a pen or a gun wasn't present between them; and somehow, I was finally experiencing it.

Those gifted hands traced along my bicep, up to my shoulder blade then traveled slowly down my back in feather-light circles. I couldn't help but shiver in excitement from her touch. She rested her soft lips against my collar bone, planting desperate kisses up my neck and along my jawline.

"Roy," Her voice was laced with pleasure as I ran my own hand along her inner thigh, being sure to get just close enough to make her gently thrust her torso closer to me, begging for my touch, before running them back in the opposite direction to tease her. She let out a frustrated groan against my neck.

"Colonel…" My eyebrows furrowed at the use of my title in such an intimate setting. I mean, she was completely naked, tangled around me in my bed; weren't we a little past the titles at this point?

I halted my wandering hand just below her left breast, but refused to remove the other palm resting on her lower back, holding her close to me. She noticed my body had stopped responding to her advances and her eyes fluttered open to meet my stare. I knew she could see the hurt in my eyes, but I shook my head anyway to enunciate my frustration, "Riza, don't." I rested my forehead against hers. A sigh left my lips. "Don't call me that, not now." She let out a soft chuckle, "Sir?" My eyebrow cocked. "Not that one either." I flashed her a small smile, hoping that she was only joking, before pressing my lips against hers. My curious tongue reached out hesitantly grazing against her lower lip, begging for admission. "Hey, man, wake up." The words sounded like they were coming from Riza, I could even feel her forming the words against my lips but it didn't sound like something she would say, especially right now. Wake up? I'd never been more awake in my entire life. My formerly wandering hand reached up to cradle the back of her head. I bundled her blonde locks between my fingers gently and pulled her closer to me to deepen the kiss which she hungrily reciprocated.

Unexpectedly, a loud voice; a loud _male_ voice had me jumping away from the woman in my arms, toppling backwards in shock. "Get away from her!" I was falling, falling far. Had the bed always been this high up? I felt like I was falling forever until my eyes abruptly shot open and I realized it had only been mere seconds; and that it was all a damn dream. I blinked away the sleep from my blurred vision. I definitely wasn't in my bedroom; the floor beneath me was hard unlike the plush carpet of my apartment that Riza _insisted_ I got only a few months ago after a very rough night of binge drinking with Hughes. I had apparently called her in my drunken stupor and complained that I was being harassed at the bar by some ex-con and required assistance in his arrest. Naturally, she showed up ready for a fight only to find Hughes and myself belligerent and no ex-con. Turns out that my drunk ass was just looking for an excuse to get her in the same room as me…and possibly to get her away from the date she was said to have had that night. I don't remember much of that night aside from the fire in those amber eyes when she realized how intoxicated I was and the fact that she left her date early for nothing. Either way, she was looking damn good and I got her back to my place…just for her to watch me bust my ass on my old wood floor while trying to drunkenly seduce her. I fell while trying to rest my hand against the table, hitting my face directly on the hard, unforgiving cherry wood. Then face met floor again when I had burst through my bedroom door and flung myself on what I thought was my bed which I guess was actually a few feet away from where I was landing. Needless to say, she had a reason for insisting on the kinder flooring. To be fair, I wouldn't have been drinking so much that night in the first place if she hadn't bragged about her damn date all day at work that day. Maybe she didn't bring it up 'all day', maybe it was just once, and after much prodding from me when she had subtly said she "had plans," but still. Moral of the story: this was not my apartment. I didn't remember going home with a woman last night, so where the hell was I?

A groan left my lips; I was never going to drink again. I don't even remember last night, which probably means I did something yet again that I will be scolded for by my Lieutenant. That's when I remembered her other _date_ last night with Tallen. Why is it that her date nights are always hard on my liver? My vision was still struggling to refocus, so any real details of my current location were unreadable. I held back a wince as the harsh overhead lighting reminded my head of the overabundance of alcohol I had consumed that night and I had to shut my eyes to numb the dull throbbing behind my ears. "wh-what the hell…" I murmured. Where ever I was, I didn't care at the moment. I just wanted to go back into my head and restart that dream all over again. That's when I remembered the male voice that had interrupted us.

"Man, let her go!" Someone was shouting again, but this time, it wasn't just in my dream. I squinted my eyes open, trying to allow my senses to take in my surroundings without the haze clouding them. That's when I saw what the person had been shouting about; across the room was the girl of my dreams, literally. The Lieutenant was a few feet away from us, her arms bound behind her back with what appeared to be thick rope. She was still sporting her tight, black dress but it was inched up a little further than it was meant to be, revealing quite a bit more of her thighs than I think she would have preferred, and her shoes were missing. Her long hair, still out of its typical clip, was gripped tightly in a man's fist that was currently towering over her with an irritated scowl plastered on his ugly face. She was on her knees with her eyes fixed on the stranger. He tugged her head back violently by her hair but she didn't even flinch, she just continued glaring at him in silence.

"Did you hear me, bitch? I don't mind messin' up that pretty face of yours if you don't wanna cooperate." My hangover seemed to instantly evaporate and was replaced by the tormenting throng of rage. "You son of a-" I tried jumping to my feet, ready to set this monster ablaze with a snap, but I only managed to meet the cold cement floor. That's when I realized my gloves had been taken and there were bulky, metal shackles binding my wrists together behind my back and matching bracelets around my ankles.

"Oh, nice of you to wake up. Seemed like you were having a pretty interesting dream. Sorry to have interrupted it." the male voice was heavy with sarcasm as it spoke to me.

I groaned against the cement, "Yeah, you should be." I mumbled. It took some work, but I manage to push myself back up onto my knees, "Get your filthy hands off of her, unless you want them singed off." The stranger's gaze turned to me for a split second to acknowledge my threat. He gave me an uninterested stare, before he lifted his hand, ready to strike the woman in front of him. The man beside me growled in annoyance before he shouted out to Nigel again, "Nigel, seriously, the boss isn't gonna like you messing with his stuff. Let her go before he catches you."

"yes, that's enough, Nigel." Tallen's voice was soft and calm, yet Nigel coward at the sound of it, instantly releasing Riza and backing away with his hands up in defeat.

"S-sorry, sir. She woke up an' an' I didn't know wh-"

Tallen cut the stuttering fool off with a 'tsk, tsk, tsk.' "Now, now, Nigel, calm yourself. You know you have trouble when you get worked up." Tallen had a friendly smile tugging at his lips; I wish I had my gloves. Nigel wouldn't meet Tallen's gaze, but he nodded in understanding. "That's no way to treat a lady, Nigel." Nigel continued to cower but Tallen simply ignored his strange behavior and turned his sights to their female 'prisoner.'

"Alright, Lieutenant, I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Riza's eyes were still trained on the man now growing closer to her with each step. She was tugging against her restraints to no avail; I could see from where I was that she was working her wrist back and forth in a methodic semi-circle shape in an attempt to loosen the rope and slide her hand free. The man was now kneeling in front of the female officer, giving her an innocent smile.

"You're a smart woman. I'm sure you understand the severity of this situation." He held out his palm face up and gestured towards me. "I have a few things I need from you, then I will release you and your superior. Sound fair?" He cocked his eyebrow, awaiting her reply. That stoic military persona of hers was hard in place. Her amber gaze never left his, but she refused to speak. After a beat of silence, Tallen must have realized his feigned kindness would be getting him nowhere because his smile fell and he let out a frustrated sigh. "I promise you, sweetheart, you don't want to be stubborn with me." The criminal pushed a few loose strands of Riza's hair behind her ear. She tried to pull away but she didn't have very far to go. "I'm not asking for much. Just give me your father's research and you can be on your merry way."

She was still working her wrists against her restraints in a subtle enough way that apparently Tallen hadn't seemed to notice; she still refused to respond yet again causing Tallen to run an irritated hand through his hair.

"Berthold left no paper trail; I'm very aware of that. We've searched the old house, his old texts… I had even considered having someone dig up his grave in case that selfish bastard had his research buried with him," He paused to measure Riza's reaction. When she didn't give him one, he continued, "Now, I don't want to have to go to those lengths if it's unnecessary. I'm not a monster, after all." He shrugged, "However, it _would_ be a waste of time; _unnecessary_ , as I said, because I know _you_ have it." Her features remained relaxed as she refused to give him any indication of the storm I knew was brewing inside of her at his words. I knew Tallen wouldn't notice the subtle clench in her fist or the shift in her eyes like I did. Even from here, I could see behind that amber wall in her stare blocking the raw emotion I knew she was feeling right now. Hell, even I felt it. A cold sweat took hold of me. Shear shock and terror were pumping through my veins. He knew? Does that mean he knows _where_ she has it?

The fingers he had used to move the hair from her face now stroked down her cheek. "How about you go ahead and tell me what I"-

A strong fist met his jaw, forcing him out of his crouching position and into a sprawled heap. "You bitch! Nigel, why did you tie her with ropes?!" He was rubbing at his aching jaw. Nigel's hands were shaking as he tried to explain himself; however, Tallen wasn't listening. He was quick to grab a gun, Riza's gun, from a holster at his side. He flicked off the safety and directed it at the woman in one fluid motion. The woman was now up on her bare feet and ready to rush towards him. In one swift moment, a loud gunshot rang out and Riza was back down on her knees, gripping her right shoulder. I could see the blood begin to seep through the material of her sleeve, and the blood left my face.

"Lieutenant!" I shouted out to her. My restraints wouldn't allow me to run to her side; I was useless. As futile an endeavor as it was, I continued trying to break loose from the shackles, my eyes darting from the now standing and furious looking man still directing the gun at my subordinate; and her, kneeling in front of him, her eyes slightly squinted from the agony I know that bullet was causing to her joint. All signs of that friendly smile had vanished from the criminal's face. His nose flared to release a frustrated sigh just as he signaled with his hand for Nigel to leave; probably to fetch a more competent henchman to do the job he clearly wasn't able to perform. The man that had woken me up had grabbed up a spare set of shackles from beside me and carried it over to Tallen. "Thank you, Marco." He nodded to the man as permission for him to put the heavy shackles on the woman. He clamped them together tightly, tugging on them once he had them locked to be sure they were secure, then he resumed his position back beside me.

"I tried being nice. I tried to make this as easy and painless as possible for you, both of you." He gestured with his head towards me, gripping the gun tighter. "As I know, you've reviewed my profile and you had that rat of mine tell you about the things I'm capable of; the things I've done." A demonic smirk tugged at his lips, "I'm actually grateful you have been so uncooperative… it just makes my job so much more… _entertaining_."

My stomach churned at the way he was staring at Riza when he spoke. It was the same look I had seen on Kimbley's face when we were in Ishbal and he was blowing up all of those innocent people; the look of a hungry, sadistic human being. Naturally, if Hawkeye had recognized this look, she let nothing of her internal terror leak out into her façade. Her face remained stoic, if only a bit perturbed at her failed escape and due to the throbbing pain encircling the metal round embedded in her shoulder.

"You have no use for him; the Colonel knows nothing. Let him go." It was the first time Riza had made so much as a peep since waking up, at least since I had woken up, and Tallen seemed amused by her topic choice as he threw back his head and began cackling. "I am very aware that Roy Mustang has the information I need. And he will actually be the one to give me the information I need because if I can't get you to give me the secrets of Flame Alchemy, I know _he_ will." His gaze was now on me. I could see something in his eyes; something he was planning. Why would he think I would tell him anything? After everything I went through, burning the secrets away; defacing Riza's back all for the sake of removing flame alchemy from the world, why would I ever just give that away? My eyebrows furrowed into a stubborn scowl. "I'll tell you nothing." Tallen rolled his eyes. He was clearly already growing bored of our stubbornness.

His response was what I had least expected. He merely shrugged his shoulders and replied with, "Very well." The gun still focused on Riza until Nigel had returned leading four other men behind him. The fattest one reached down, clamping his oversized palms on her shoulders and began turning her away towards the exit, but not before I saw her wince in pain at the pressure the oversized beast was putting on her bullet wound.

My heart panicked. "Where are you taking her?!" I had to get to her. Tallen shrugged, "I didn't think I was asking for much here, but apparently keeping your beloved teacher's research a secret is more important to you than the woman's life, hm?" The look he was giving me showed he was not playing around; he was not looking to waste any time here. My eyes were on the obese man's back as he began to leave the room. "Lieutenant! Bring her back right now." My voice was almost a growl. Tallen threw his head back and laughed. He quickly stepped towards me, grabbed a handful of my hair and forced my head back into the wall behind me but not before snapping the fingers on his opposite hand, halting the man from disappearing with Hawkeye.

"Listen here, Colonel, bad things are going to happen to her, unspeakable things, if I don't get some damn cooperation from you. Give me Hawkeye's research, and your precious subordinate will be back in your care without a scratch. Whatdaya say?" This was not an easy place to be for me. No matter which option I chose, I knew I would be hurting Riza. Letting a man like Tallen have all he needed to reproduce flame alchemy is the exact reason Riza begged me to burn off the secrets engraved in her back in the first place. If I were to just hand those secrets over, Riza suffered all of that pain, at my hand, for nothing. But if I say no… I don't know what these men are capable of. I know Riza could handle anything they threw at her, but that doesn't mean I want her to have to go through that. While my internal battle continued to rage, her voice cut through it all. "Colonel, don't you dare." Her voice held no fear. I looked up to meet her eyes staring intently into mine. That monster of a man was still towering behind her, his hands now firmly placed on her forearms. She slowly shook her head, "You promised." My heart dropped. I knew what she was wanting me to do; she wanted me to keep flame alchemy as far away from these people as possible, just like I had promised her all of those years ago.

Tallen had released my hair and was now just kneeling in front of me, patiently awaiting my answer. I let my hair fall over my eyes. "I'm sorry," I mumbled. My jaw tightened as I tentatively decided to follow Riza's request. "I won't tell you." I couldn't meet her eyes after that. I knew she would be relieved and thankful and I just couldn't handle it right now. That was not the choice I was wanting to make, not that I was so quick to give up Berthold's research, I just wanted these men away from my Lieutenant. "Thank you." I heard her whisper softly from across the room but I refused to respond. An angry snarl left Tallen's lips but was quickly followed by a nonchalant shrug. "Good. I plan on getting it out of you eventually. After all, I know she means so much more to you than just a simple subordinate." His lips were now inches from my ear. I gave him a confused stare, "What the hell are you talking about?" I felt his breath as he chuckled softly, "You are not so subtle, Colonel. The jealousy you showed at the bar, the way you look at her, and don't think I haven't researched you as well; the past you both share. I know she is important to you, and I plan to exploit that weakness to get what I want."

I gritted my teeth. This bastard was going to use her against me in an attempt for me to give him information that I can't; giving the blue prints of such a murderous power to a monster like Tallen? Riza would never forgive me. "I don't think you understand that I _can't_ tell you anything."

He ignored my response and continued, "What I have planned to do to her…"His devious cackle was hot against my ear.

"I plan to make her _scream_."

I fought hard against my restraints. He stretched his arms above his head, "isn't it exciting? I know _I_ certainly can't wait." Tallen stood up and made his way back over to Riza; he began circling her like an animal circling its prey. His hungry eyes wandered up and down her, taking in every last detail. "I don't suppose you care to give me that information now, hm?"

She stood straight and firm, her shoulders pulled back and her head held high as if standing in a military line-up. She showed no fear and no sign that she had even heard the man speaking to her; I had to admire her. He moved to stand in front of her with that smirk still firmly in place. "Good. I was hoping you would make this difficult." My body was tense with desperation; a need to knock that cocky prick upside the head and to protect Riza from whatever horrible things this monster had planned for her.

Tallen's fist flew out, making contact with the side of Riza's temple followed by another to the opposing side. Her head lolled in either direction with the force of each hit. He kept going, occasionally thrusting out his knee or the heel of his foot to her torso, while the oversized man held her in place for him. She had yet to even make a sound, not a squeak or a cry. My gut felt heavy with the sickening weight of guilt and heartache. I was worried my teeth were going to shatter from how tightly I had them clenched together. My head was throbbing with what I first assumed to be the continual hangover, but had now decided that it was the throng of rage building inside of me. I grimaced as another hit landed against Riza's swollen cheek. Once his rampage was finished, his knuckles looked bruised and bloody and I couldn't bring myself to _'admire'_ the resulting wounds on his victim's face. I knew she had handled worse; I knew this was nothing for the strong woman in front of me; but I could easily admit that I, myself, was not as strong as her. Not when it came to this; watching, just helplessly watching from the sidelines. The man was breathing heavily now, slightly exhausted from his released rage on the woman. Riza slowly raised up her head to meet Tallen's eyes, then spit out the blood that had been pooling behind her lips right at the criminal in front of her. He wiped it from his cheek and scoffed angrily. "Cute," He spat, sarcastically, "But don't worry, we're just getting started." He stated before sauntering slowly over to the table in the far corner of the room, returning with a knife. I hid the shutter that racked me to the core as images of what this man was planning to do consumed my mind. My mouth went dry as I realized what a mistake I made, making it so obvious what and who my weakness was. My hands clenched into tight fists as I growled angrily. Tallen was right; that research may become his after all.

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 **Author's Note: Again, so sorry this took so long, but I'm not giving up on this story or anything, I've just been super busy! Updates may still be a little slow, but I'm going to try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you to those of you who are still sticking around with me and thank you to those who take the time to review and let me know what you think! I love feedback. I eat feedback (num num num) it keeps me young and it keeps me inspired. ^.^ lol I know, I'm weird. See you soon!**

 **The next chapter may be a little, er, graphic. So I'm warning you ahead of time. (I originally had a lot of the next chapter in this one, but decided to cut them up into two chapters so uh, sorry hehe)**

 **And yes, I know this is in first person, unfortunately, I have a horrible habit of jumping back and forth between who is telling the story, but I'll try to make it consistent through the rest of the story. For some reason, this was just how my muse led me to write this chapter and I had honestly not even realized it until people started to review about it lol. So, I do apologize. If it is too much of an issue, I have no problem coming back in and fixing this chapter. ^.^ (Criticism is welcome, just please give respectful or helpful criticism, not rude comments-please!)**

 **Next chapter will hopefully be up in a couple of days, I'm working on it now!**

 **1/8/16 UPDATE: I do apologize, but I went back through and removed Havoc from being taken; meaning now it is only Roy and Riza that Tallen took from the bar. Unfortunately, the original plans I had for Havoc's character in this story have changed, so I decided I think I'm going to make his character more significant in later chapters, so I removed him from being taken. If this angers you for some reason, I'm sorry.**


	4. Chapter 4: Day One

**Author's Note: If you haven't seen my update/memo yet, here it is again... I decided to go back through and have Tallen only take Roy and Riza. I had plans for Havoc's character but I have changed my mind on where I want him in this story. So don't freak out. I haven't changed much in previous chapters (he was still at the bar with them; still passes out from being drugged; Tallen just doesn't have his men grab him when he has them grab the colonel.)**

 **Anyway, it is almost four in the morning, so any spelling/grammar/etc mistakes, I will apologize in advance for. But because I stayed up all night rewording the previous chapters AND writing this one for you guys, I would really appreciate some love. So send me some reviews, please! Gosh, I'm so tired right now, I might die. xD**

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Chapter Four:

 _Day One_

She didn't scream; she was stronger than that. She had been trained in torture methods before at the academy and had enough self-restraint to prevent herself from giving the enemy the satisfaction from her distress. She kept her jaw clenched together, her eyes remained tightly shut to prevent them from watering or releasing any desperate tears. With every punch he threw, she was sure to hold her breath with each impact so as to prevent any groans from accidentally erupting from her lips. Once his ambush of fists was done, she finally released the breath she was holding, taking in a few slow, exaggerated breaths. Riza could already feel the area around her left eye beginning to swell; a metallic liquid had pooled between her cheek and her gums. Her entire face was throbbing; she couldn't imagine how she looked right now. She lowered her head so her hair would fall around her face, preventing the Colonel from seeing any of the damage Tallen had inflicted. She could feel blood dripping from the commissure of her lips. She knew it was not in her favor, but she spit the blood from her mouth directly at Tallen's cheek, anyway. He looked annoyed but his eyes were still dancing with excitement. He said something, but she couldn't make out what it was he said; one of his fists must have hit her right ear because there was a high pitched ringing in it, making it difficult to hear properly out of it.

He turned away from her, sauntering over to the table at the corner of the room. Riza refused to show her nerves on the surface, but as soon as she saw him turn back to her with a grin and a knife, a nervous tingling sensation slithered through her veins and her heart quickened its pace. She heard the clanking of metal across the room, indicating that Roy was fighting against his restraints again. Riza held her head up high again, refusing to give Tallen any indication as to how she was feeling at the sight of the metallic weapon in his hand. The giant behind her pushed down on her shoulders, indicating he was wanting her to get on her knees. She struggled against his strength with a desire to remain standing, but one solid shove had her stumbling to her knees as he was wanting.

Tallen was now standing directly in front of her. Without warning, he dug the edge of the knife into Riza's arm in the same spot that the bullet was still located, rotating it back and forth so as to allow it to dig in deeper and deeper around the already existing wound. She couldn't help but wince at the stinging torment. Riza continued to keep her jaw tightly clenched together, still refusing to allow herself to make any sound. She could hear an infuriated male voice across the room and assumed it was Roy in protest to what was happening to her. Her hands balled together until her knuckles glowed white. Suddenly, the throbbing pain ceased just as she heard the sound of a metallic clank on the floor. Tallen was grinning at her, holding up the now bloodied knife in front of him. "Can't have you dying from something as simple as an infection, now can we?" He tilted his head to the side as if to appear less menacing, but Riza just glared at him. She glanced quickly down at the ground where she could now clearly see the gleam of silver beneath a coating of crimson; he was removing the bullet from her arm. The blade once again met her skin without warning, this time he was carving a trail with it down her upper thigh. She closed her eyes, taking in deep breaths to keep herself under control; and it gave her something to concentrate on besides the pain. He seemed annoyed that she wasn't having a more boisterous reaction to his blade. He forced it deeper into her thigh, dragging it to her knee. Blood began to dribble out of the deep, open gash. Tallen was eyeing the knife, carelessly turning it around in his palm.

"I still want to play with this a bit, but first," He grabbed Riza by the neck. She felt those heavy hands leave her shoulders as Tallen yanked Riza into the air by her neck, dangling her about a foot above his head. Black spots were exploding at the edges of her vision. Her hands were uselessly bound behind her, so she attempted to kick out at Tallen to no avail; her strength was leaving her at an alarming rate as he tightened his death grip on her neck. The sadistic gleam in his eyes had Riza wondering if he was already done attempting to torture her and had instead decided to just strangle her to death. She felt the fight leaving her body as the oxygen failed to circulate. Her eyes began closing; this was it. This is how she would die. Just before consciousness completely failed her, she felt Tallen release his hold on her, dropping her from where he was holding her above the ground. As soon as her body hit the rough floor, she let out a fit of coughs. Between each cough, desperate breaths racked her body; she couldn't seem to take in enough air at once. Her body was frantic for more.

Tallen took a step towards Riza. Before the man still hovering behind her had a chance to clasp his thick hands on her shoulders again, she threw out a kick at Tallen's shin. He leapt back just before impact. "Whoa, now!" He let out a dark chuckle, "I think I need to teach this little lady just who's in charge here." A devious smirk tugged at his lips, "Marco, go get the branding iron." His demonic gaze turned to a dark haired man standing off to the side of them that was assumed to be Marco, "I'm about to officially make this little treat _mine."_

Riza's eyebrows tugged downward at the sound of this. _Brand_ her? He was going to _brand_ her? What was it with the men in her life and using her skin, her body for their own selfish desires? She already had a permanent _"_ brand" thanks to her loving father, marring her back. She would die before she let this bastard have the same luxury of using her body as his own personal sketchbook. She felt a foreign fit of rage boiling up inside her, overwhelming her typical instincts and clouding her judgment. She fought desperately against the monster that was once again holding onto her, this time at the elbows. "The hell you will!" She shouted, thrusting out her foot at Tallen again in an attempt to kick him. He was just quick enough to avoid the brunt of her attack, but she still managed to connect her heel with the side of his thigh, resulting in a grunt from him. He let out a laugh, "Well look at that, finally getting a reaction out of the 'Perfect Soldier.' Apparently, she's not a big fan of 'tattoos,' huh?" _You don't know how right you are,_ she thought dryly.

She was still fighting against the man that was holding her back, and was almost able to wiggle free from his grip until the man Tallen had referred to as Marco had returned with a long iron rod with a cursive, overlapping 'TG' at the end of it; this end was glowing a bright red. Riza's eyes widened as he exchanged the branding iron with the bloodied knife in Tallen's hand. This couldn't happen, she couldn't let this happen. She pushed her back against the man behind her; she had no logical idea as to how to get out of this situation, so the only thing she could think to do was to put herself as far from Tallen as she could possibly get.

"I think it's real cute that you call yourself a man, yet the only prisoner in this room that you are ' _man enough'_ to pick on is a woman." Tallen hadn't removed his stare from Riza; as if the unveiled fear in her large, bronze eyes but he did halt his venture towards her with the scolding hot iron at Roy's words. Riza watched as the muscles in Tallen's jaw flexed before he released a humorless chuckle in response. "Oh don't worry, Colonel. I have plans for you as well."

"Mr. Greggs?"

Tallen finally tore his eyes from Riza and focused instead on the new figure standing in the doorway. It was a short, older man that appeared to be roughly in his fourties. His hair shown an obvious amount of aging with its graying sheen and the wrinkles around the lower area of his mouth gave him a pessimistic appearance. Tallen seemed irritated, but still handed the iron back to Marco and made his way over to the new man in the doorway. They whispered back and forth for a moment before Tallen pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Yes, yes, alright. Tell him I'll be there in a moment; you are dismissed." The older man nodded, then without even acknowledging anyone else in the room, he turned and left. Tallen groaned out loud, "Alright, boys. I have a meeting I must attend at the moment. Go ahead and put the prisoners in cell block 3. You can just throw them together for now." He dug in his pocket, pulling out a big ring of keys and tossed it to Marco. "Marco, let Barrett take the woman to the cell first. Once she is out of sight, you can take Mustang; that way they are both more likely to be obedient." The large man, now known to be Barrett, nodded in understanding of his role, then took the large keyring from Marco. He shoved at Riza's back, "Get goin'." His voice was a gravely mumble. Riza obeyed, allowing the monster to follow her out of the room. Tallen gave her a final smirk and a wave before she was out of the room. "Don't worry, darling, we'll finish this later!" He shouted after her in a joyous tone. He then turned his attention back to Marco, "Don't speak to them, just lock them in and then leave." Marco nodded, then turned his attention to the two men still bound to the wall.

Riza finally let out a breath she hadn't realized she was even holding as soon as she was out of the room. Her entire body seemed to relax slightly at the absence of Tallen's menacing presence but his parting words did nothing to comfort her. She worried when he planned to 'finish' this. Bile rose up in the back of her throat at the thought of that monster's initials forever branded into her skin, tainting her more than she already was. She tried to force the sickening thought from her mind and focus instead on where Barrett was leading her. They walked down a tight, dank corridor lined with prison cells on either side. Riza made sure to count how many cells she passed, and every turn they took, in case her and the colonel ever had a chance to escape. Sixteen cells, left, four cells, through a swinging wooden door-note that there's no lock on it, four more cells, right… She ran through this order in her head over again to lock it into memory just as they came to a stop at the end of this hallway. The light above them was flickering, indicating it needed to be changed out. The bars on the doors had blotches of rust in various spots, or was it blood? There was no windows in any of the cells she had seen, including the one they now stood in front of.

The man fought through the ring of keys with one hand to find what she assumed was a skeleton key for all of the cells in this block, because the key he chose had a '3' engraved in it. He was still gripping her upper arm tightly, using his other hand to steady the key and unlock the door. He shoved her through the door then slammed it behind her, locking it, then turning back down the long hallway back to the main room they had been in. Riza glanced around, noting the toilet to her right, to her left was a small mattress on the filth covered floor with a single sheet but no pillow. She made her way over to it and sat down. Her back rested against the wall in an awkward manor due to her hands still being bound behind her back in the thick, too-tight shackles. She had to adjust herself a few times before finally nudging herself against the wall to push the mattress out enough for her hands to fit behind it, providing a more comfortable sitting position for her. She tilted her head down and closed her eyes. So many thoughts were rushing through her head; did Tallen realize why she had reacted to the branding iron? Or did he simply consider it a normal, human reaction to a stressful situation? Hopefully, he wouldn't think much of her reaction and would forget about the idea entirely. This lie she was desperately trying to convince herself to have any merit only elicited a scoff from the logical woman. She knew better than to believe something so ignorant; of course he would remember; of course he would choose to do something so permanent and inhumane. It got her thinking back to all of the victim reports in Tallen's file; were those poor women branded too? She couldn't remember seeing anything about it in the files, but that didn't mean he hadn't. Regardless, she had to regain control over herself. Reacting like that was exactly what he was wanting and she refused to give him any pleasure from her suffering. She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She had to work this out in her mind; she could _not_ and _would_ not let herself react that way again. Riza continued taking in slow breaths through her nose, releasing each through her mouth while she patiently listened for the footsteps of her colonel to cut through the silence.

* * *

Marco ushered another man that was standing silently in the corner of the room to join him in moving the prisoners. This man was large; almost as large as the monster that had just led Riza to the holding cell, but instead of being the size of a giant with the muscles to match, this man was of average height, but the outline of every muscle was clearly carved into his arms and shoulders. He waited in front of Roy until Barrett had returned with the keys. Marco then unlocked the shackles from the wall mounts. The muscular man roughly grabbed Mustang's arm and began yanking him along behind him. He followed obediently, knowing that this man was taking him to where Riza was.

They walked for what felt like forever, passing by a bunch of empty cells before finally reaching the cell with the blonde haired beauty inside. Marco unlocked the cell then flipped through the keyring until he was satisfied with his choice and unlocked Roy's cuffs. As soon as the shackles were gone, he knew this was his one chance; Roy threw out a fist, connecting with the side of Marco's face. He flew into the wall, gripping his cheek. "Goddammit! You'll pay for that, Mustang." He struggled back up to his feet, stomping towards Mustang. The colonel ignored the man and had instead quickly spun around and readied another fist to attack the man still holding tightly to his upper arm; unfortunately, this guy was prepared. He caught Roy's fist in his hand. Roy tried to yank his hand back out, but to no avail. The man then flicked his wrist, bending Roy's fist backwards at a painfully awkward angle which elicited a indignant groan from Roy. He finally released Roy's hand then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him into the cell, slamming the door behind him. Marco locked the door. He stood and glared at Roy, "You fucked up, _Colonel._ I just want you to be aware of that." His eyes slowly turned to Riza with a hungry stare, but before he could say anything more, the other two men bumped into his shoulder then began to leave,

"C'mon. We were specifically told not to talk to them."

Marco rolled his eyes before following the other two men out.

Once the immediate danger was gone, Roy turned his attention to Riza. She hadn't appeared to have moved even an inch. She had her knees tugged up to her chest and her forehead was resting upon them; her face was hidden behind the wall of her golden hair; her shoulders were slouched slightly, but Roy felt much relief when he noted the small, rhythmic up and down of her shoulders indicating that she was in fact breathing. He crawled over to her, "Lieutenant! Are you alright? Can you hear me?" She didn't even move at the sound of his voice. He reached out a hesitant hand, resting it gently on the back of her head and began stroking her hair. "Please respond. I just need to know that you are-"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Her voice was muffled from how she was sitting.

Mustang raised an eyebrow at her before responding, "Um, alright, permission granted. Go ahead."

She lifted her head slightly to meet his gaze; he gasped. Seeing her up close like this made every muscle in his body tense in pure rage. Her entire face was covered in various shades of red and purple from the amount of contusions forming. There was a gash on the side of her cheek from the repeated impact of Tallen's fist. One of her eyes was blood shot on the far side and surrounded by swelling purple skin. Her lower lip had a trail of dried blood leading down her chin. He didn't have long to scrutinize his lieutenant's injuries before Riza's heel lashed out into his stomach, knocking him backwards.

"You… IDIOT!"

She kicked out at him again, but this time, he managed to block it with his forearm, "Hawkeye, what the hell?!" She slid off the mattress to her knees in front of the colonel. He was now able to note the anger in her eyes that he hadn't seen a second ago when he was too focused on her wounds.

"Why the hell did you have to act like that?"

He stared at her in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

She rolled her eyes, "Last night, at the bar. You just _had_ to intervene, didn't you?"

Roy's eyebrows knitted together. "Did you see how close he was getting to you? What was I supposed to do, just let him hang all over you like you're h-"

" _Yes."_

He stared at her with a dumbfounded expression which led to her rolling her eyes once more. "Colonel, I'm not about to waste time explaining to you the basics of going undercover and what exactly one must be willing to endure in order to pull it off, so let's just drop it."

Roy's jaw dropped, "Whoa, whoa what do you mean _'willing to endure in order to pull it off?'_ Were you going to _sleep_ with that bastard?!" Had her hands still not been shackled, she would've slapped her forehead at this point, or maybe even have slapped Roy.

"What were you hoping to accomplish by acting so foolish? This was the best case scenario to have expected after what you pulled last night! Telling our target you are my boyfriend? When you, whether incognito or not, have a very well-known face and I'm supposed to be on a date with the perp?"

He held up his hands in front of him as if to admit defeat. "I know, I'm sorry. This is all my fault." He meant it. He felt so guilty knowing that he may be the cause of their situation.

She shook her head with a sigh, "He already knew who I was before you came over to us. But just know, your bad behavior didn't help anything. Especially because now he thinks using me against you his best chance at getting you to give him my father's research." He looked away again.

"I'm mostly angry with you, sir, because had you not intervened, there would have been more time for you and Havoc to have left the bar before the sedatives took effect; then he wouldn't have you in a holding cell right now." He narrowed his gaze at her. Did she honestly think he would've just left her there? He grabbed Riza's shoulders just above where the bullet injury was located.

"Intervening like a drunken idiot or not, I was not about to leave you alone in that bar with a man like Greggs."

She seemed to have completely ignored his response; her head was tilted down again, so her eyes were on the floor. She seemed consumed by something troubling. He felt her shoulders tighten beneath his palms. "Colonel," Her voice was barely above a whisper, "Just how close were you to giving up? To telling him?" He was taken aback by her question. He was caught off guard by her change of topic and didn't even know how to answer it. He could lie, tell her he wasn't close when he thought that monster was going to strangle the life out of her, or when he was talking about branding her, but she would know it was all a lie. Feeling guilty, he turned away from her and released her shoulders from his hold. He remained silent, unable to admit his almost defeat to the strong woman before him.

"That's what I thought."

He didn't say anything in return yet again. It was silent for a long, drawn out moment until Riza finally tilted her head back up to meet Roy's gaze."No matter what happens, promise me right now that you won't give up. My life is nothing. Can you imagine what would happen if a man like Tallen Greggs had the secrets to flame alchemy?" He grimaced. He completely understood what she was saying and her logic behind it, but all the same, he knew he would be lying if he told her that Tallen could do nothing to get the secrets from him. Roy slowly shook his head, "You can't ask me to promise that."

She glared at him but again, he wouldn't meet her gaze. "I would rather die than allow you to-"

"What if the roles were reversed? If it were me getting tortured right in front of you and you were the only one that could help me and make it stop? What would you do?"

She looked sad and as if she truly understood how difficult this was for him, but still responded with, "I would follow my orders."

Roy's jaw flexed. "I'm sorry, but I'm not promising anything, Lieutenant."

The emotion left her eyes as a glaze of indifference glossed over them. "Fine. If there is this much doubt in your own ability, I'll just have to take matters into my own hands." The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end; he knew what she was saying, but he decided to ask anyway.

"What the hell are you suggesting?"

"If I'm dead, he has no leverage over you." That's what he assumed she was meaning.

Mustang's entire body seemed to go numb as the terror of losing her consumed him. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "Riza, dammit, he beat you, shot you, I had to watch him almost choke the life out of you! He even tried to brand you. The worst part is I can tell he's enjoying it; that means things are only going to get worse. I can't let that happen. I can't just sit back and watch you fight through the pain of whatever else he decides to do to you, knowing I could easily make it all stop."

His words made her heart flutter; she always loved when he showed how much he cared about her. She allowed a small smile to break through her indifferent expression, to show she truly appreciated how strong he has been. She couldn't imagine what her face looked like right now and she couldn't imagine how it would feel to be looking onto Roy with the damage instead of her. She saw his eyes wander down to her neck and she wanted to hide under the sheet. The guilt and shame was so tangible in his eyes that it made her heart hurt.

Roy grimaced at the site of the bruising outline of a hand forming around Riza's neck. She couldn't take him dwelling on this any longer, not with that look in his eye. "How about we work on thinking of a way out of this place?" Roy was drawn back to reality and slightly thankful that they could talk about something other than his lieutenant's idea to 'fix' their problem. "Yeah, sounds good."

She flashed him one of her rare smiles for only a moment before turning a worried gaze down to his right hand. "How is your hand, sir?" He looked at her in confusion for a minute before realizing what she was referring to; leave it to Riza Hawkeye to be more concerned about him than for herself. Here she was bloody and bruised and she was worried about his stupid wrist? A soft chuckle left his lips, "It's nothing." That's when he remembered something; her reaction to the branding iron. "Lieutenant, are you... alright?"

He knew she understood what he was referring to by the flash of anxiety in her amber eyes. "I don't know why I reacted like that. It was a moment of weakness and I promise it will not happen again, Colonel."

He was taken aback by her emotionless and stoic response. Did she think he was upset about her reaction? Did she honestly think that's why he was asking about it? A frown crept across his lips. "I'm not upset with you for how you reacted, Lieutenant. I understand why it affected you. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Her eyes sparkled with what appeared to be genuine relief to his response but Roy could tell it was still worrying her, considering Tallen's promise to actually brand her at a later time. Without thinking, Roy carefully wrapped his arms around his subordinate and pulled her into his chest. The action surprised Riza at first but she quickly relaxed into the warmth of his touch.

"Thank you, Colonel." They sat like this for a long while until finally, hesitantly, pulling apart when Roy noticed something wet soaking into the sleeve of his white shirt. Noting the source of the liquid, he pointed towards the wound on Riza's arm, "That's still bleeding pretty heavily." He went to the sheet on the bed and busied himself by ripping off two long strips from the edge of the sheet. He rushed back to his lieutenant's side. "I'm going to wrap it up really fast." He then gently reached for Riza's hurt arm and commenced wrapping the cloth around her arm a few times then tied it tight. Riza thanked him as they stood up simultaneously. Roy immediately leaned down and used the second strip of cloth to wrap around the deep gash in her thigh and stop it from bleeding as well. Once he tied it in place, he carefully tugged Riza's dress back into the proper place it was supposed to be in order to make her feel less exposed. She smiled at him, appreciative of the gesture. They turned and sat down on the small mattress.

"Roy, you need to understand that it's only going to get worse. What he did earlier is nothing to compared to possible torture techniques we learned about at the academy. I need you to stay strong; we both need to stay strong." He stared at the floor for a moment in thought before nodding.

"Okay, agreed. Oh and lieutenant? I forgot to mention something after our talk earlier. No dying; that's an order." She gave him a death glare before deciding against another argument right now. She chose instead to just rest her head against his shoulder. "Yes sir. Now let's focus on how to get out of here." Riza began by telling him what she remembered from the walk from the main room to their current cell.

* * *

"Dammit, Atticus." Tallen muttered under his breath. His associate ruined his fun with the beautiful lieutenant. He had apparently requested the immediate attention of Tallen, which was the reason he had to leave so abruptly and was the reason Tallen was now standing in Atticus's office. The man was sitting behind his large chestnut desk, leaning back in his luxury, black office chair. He had told Tallen to have a seat as well, but he preferred to continue to pout in front of the door. "I was in the middle of something, you know."

Atticus waved a hand around in the air in a nonchalant gesture, "It can wait. So, any news to report?"

"Both of the prisoners only woke up a short while ago. I haven't had much time to-"

"So we don't have it yet."

Tallen shook his head, "Not yet."

Atticus just nodded. His eyebrows crinkled and his lips puckered slightly as if he were deep in thought. "I'm assuming the torture methods you have been using are all 'physical', yes?"

Tallen made a disgruntled face, "What are you talking about?"

Atticus clasped his hands in front of his chin, resting his elbows on his desk. "Physical torture: inflicting pain on the body."

Tallen scoffed, "Uh, yeah." Sometimes, his long-time best friend and fellow partner didn't make sense. "Of course that's what I've been doing. In fact I was in the middle of-"

"'Making the lieutenant yours' by branding her, yes?"

Tallen looked at him confused, "How did you know that?"

"You can brand her if you want. But I think it would be effective on Mustang if you 'make her yours' in... _other_ ways."

The man flashed a toothy grin to show he understood, "Oh, I _like_ that idea."

"And I also think we should try to utilize some psychological torture."

Tallen was not much of a torture guy, at least not in order to get something out of the other person. If he tortured someone, it was for the pure joy of the victim's pain. He lifted a confused brow. "Are you sure something like that will work?"

"I'm positive."

Tallen shrugged, "It just doesn't sound as fun."

"Oh I promise that it'll be plenty fun and I'll gladly help." The man at the desk chuckled darkly, tapping his index finger against the side of his temple. "If you want to truly torture a person, you must start with the mind."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Next chapter coming soon.**


	5. Chapter 5: The Box

**Author's Note: Just so everyone knows, I view Riza as being a very strong woman. Someone that can withstand almost anything, including physical pain and even mental abuse. However, everyone has a weakness and a breaking point. Considering the only weakness of hers they show in the series is Roy, I have adapted my own idea of what I think would possibly have an effect on her. If you think it is OOC in anyway, just let me know, but I will gladly give my explanation as to why I chose what I chose to be her breaking point and the same with Roy (in the story). I also don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and think that I don't find Roy to be as strong as Riza, but in many ways, I truly believe he is more susceptible to at least** _ **reacting**_ **to different torture methods. I just wanted to point this out before I proceed so that no one thinks I'm trying to make them sound weak in any way, because that's definitely not the case. ^.^**

* * *

Chapter Five: _The Box_

Black. Pure black, unfathomable darkness. It was a darkness so profound, it felt like it was consuming her soul; her sanity. It was a darkness that seemed to even permeate her other senses. This darkness had mastered auditory stimulation: the wailing screams of thousands dying at her hands reverberated all around her. Those horrifying, petrified howls reached a crescendo and threatened to deafen her. She swore she could even taste this blackness and all of its bitter, metallic essence similar to that of blood. She endured it tightening its grasp around her throat with every inhalation she took, strangling her. Of course, that could also be due to the amount of time she had been in this air-tight box and the lack of oxygen she was positive she had remaining even though she had been sure to measure her breaths and keep herself calm to avoid over indulging in the limited amount of oxygen provided for her. She honestly couldn't discern how long it had been since the colonel and herself had been captured anymore. A month? Three? She couldn't even fathom what time was anymore; especially not when they put her in this literal hell, which seemed to be their new ritual every day for hours and hours and _hours_ until she would finally hear a key clanking against the lock on the outside of it and cause the feeling of utter relief pump through her veins. It felt like months since she had even seen the colonel, but she knew she was just being dramatic; it hadn't been _that_ long.

 _Roy._ Thoughts of him brought on a whole new wave of dread and longing. An imaginary hand seemed to reach out and crush her to the core between its almighty fingers any time her cognizance ever turned to thoughts of him. She couldn't handle the images that imbedded themselves into her brain, what those tyrants could possibly be doing to him right now. Where was he? How much have they harmed him?

The last time she had seen him was on their first day here. They were alone in a cell together, laying with each other in a comfortable silence when their captors came in without a word. Marco threw a black bag over the colonel's head and then one was flung over her own before they were forced out of the room into what she believed to be separate ends of this prison. Roy's ebony eyes held such terror right before that bag covered him down past his shoulders. It was not terror for himself she saw, though. It had been for her; trepidation for what was going to happen to her. She recalled his frantic voice as he shouted out to her while two of the men from before had grappled onto him and extracted him from the mattress and out of her reach.

Riza was not aware of what had become of her superior, but she did know he was not dead. She had heard him shouting and bellowing the previous night; how he had the vigor or the capability to do so was beyond her. They had not fed her but crumbs or gave her much water since they had woken up that first day. She didn't even think she was capable of vocal articulation anymore due to the dry, barren condition her throat was in. Her tongue felt like it was covered in humid scales. Riza wasn't sure what they were doing to her colonel and had resolutely decided not to dwell on such thoughts as to subject herself to even more anxiety than she was currently experiencing. No food, no water; she could handle these things. She was _trained_ for these things. This box; however, was a different story.

It felt like a coffin. It was diminutive in size; just large enough for her shoulders to touch either wall of the wooden prison and if she were to lift her head about an inch, she knew her nose would touch the lid. The top of her head was pressed against one end of the casket and her knees had to be slightly bent in order to fit her feet at an agonizing angle against the other end, which allowed no room for any kind of movement whatsoever. The first time they put her in here, she thought nothing of it; child's play. She truly believed her psyche had dealt with far worse during the war and all of the horror she has experienced and caused since the war, but she was terribly, terribly mistaken. This box was sealed so flawlessly, not even a small crack was present. There was absolutely no way for light or air to penetrate it. She was never a claustrophobic person, but she knew this would certainly be the case if they ever escaped.

 _If?_ She thought coldly to herself. Was she really already willing to give up? To believe this is where she would take her last breath? Her mind was in the midst of an internal battle; she vowed not to give up, for the sake of the colonel; yet the other part of her mind, the more sinister part of her mind was aching to give in and end her time here. She needed to stop. She had to stay calm and had to steady her breathing as to maintain as much air as she could for she did not know when her captors would be returning to release her from this coffer again. Her body had not ceased its shivering since her most recent run-in with Atticus during his questioning and her hair was still sopping wet, sticking to her cheeks and forehead. The sound of her teeth chattering was almost a comfort compared to the dead silence this box usually carried with it. Riza feared a fever was in her near future if not already encompassing her, due to the clammy gleam of sweat she could feel layering the backs of her palms.

Riza closed her eyes, desperately striving to escape the encompassing inkiness surrounding her. She was worried for her mental health at this point. She found herself hallucinating things while in this box: voices, touches, mirages, most involving faces of her victims from Ishbal but some embodied Roy. She found that sleeping wasn't an option either, because the images and voices in her dreams were even less pleasant.

"You did this to yourself. It's your own fault." Riza gasped and glanced beside her at the sound of a voice. It sounded like a man's voice, a familiar man's voice. She turned her head as well as she could in the cramped place to see who was now beside her. It was a face that had haunted her nightmares on many occasions. A man that appeared to be in his late forties perhaps, with a flash of white hair and piercing red eyes. His skin was once darkened by the heat of the sun, but now it held a ghostly gray tinge to it. The bags under his eyes showed his exhaustion and with the hand he had extended slightly towards her, she noted the calloused palms and the numerous cuts on his fingers from countless years of hard labor. She never understood why his face stood out to her so much after all of those people she had killed in cold blood. This one and one other, a child, were the two that seemed to visit her most frequently while she was asleep. However, this was the first time since she had killed them that she had seem either one of the ghosts from her past in _person._

 _I must have a fever like I thought; or perhaps I'm just losing my mind._

She moved her lips to respond, but due to the alarm at seeing this man alive and in such close proximity to her, she could not manage to coerce the words out of her parched throat. The dejection in his features was palpable. "You deserve to perish in this prison for what you did." Her mouth pressed into a tight line at his statement.

A warm liquid, thick and viscous, puddled around her fingers; blood, it was blood. It was _his_ blood. "This is what you did to me." Noticing where her attention had led, he jabbed a thick, jagged finger at his blood-drenched burlap shirt, then towards the hole in his forehead that Riza had somehow failed to even see until now. "I had a wife...and three small children. They are all gone now, because of you. You-you monster!" He was blubbering now, tears mixed with his body liquor and she almost broke down with him. "You're a heartless murderer and you'll rot in Hell for your sins!" Riza winced at the slur.

She knew tears would have welled up in her eyes by now as she stared at the broken man beside her, if she had any sustenance to spill. "I," She finally managed to speak a syllable after innumerable days without using her voice at all, but this caused a coughing fit from the soldier. Once she had herself under control, she returned her sympathetic gaze to the now crying man. "I'm… sorry." Her voice sounded so foreign to her; feeble and filled with the sorrow she sincerely felt in her heart.

He shook his head slowly, as if not accepting her apology; and why should he? He was right. She _was_ a murderer. She had killed so many people; so many innocent people, and why? Because someone told her to. Riza had to steady her breathing and fight back the gnawing desire to create tears that would in turn threaten to break down her unyielding exterior; she was stronger than that. There was no place for self-pity here. Her eyes closed; she couldn't stand to look upon that disconsolate face any longer.

"At least you'll have a coffin." Riza's eyes shot open. The Ishbalan man was no longer beside her and was instead replaced with the face she had grown so fond of over the years. Her gaze softened at the sight of him. She felt the heavy weight of guilt slightly subside.

"Roy." Her voice once again sounded so ineffectual and thin that she didn't even believe it was hers. He was running his gloved hand gingerly along the lid above them, marveling at it like it was some masterpiece and not a death-box.

"This is finely crafted. You'll look lovely in it."

Her jaw was set in a fine line. "Sir, I'm not going to die." He hadn't even seemed to hear her as he continued to stroke his fingers down the almost invisible seam in the wood.

"Those people we killed… they are buried in a pile of bodies and ash like garbage. They had no proper ceremony, no tombstones, no coffin…" His eyes hardened. "We did that to them." She nodded, now having regained her composure.

"I know, sir."

"You are aware we are going to die here, right, Lieutenant?" His words were jarring to say the least. She had to remind herself that this was just an illusion, a hallucination. This was not the real Roy Mustang laying in this box beside her. If it were, hell, he wouldn't fit for one, _she_ barely fit by herself. For two, she wouldn't be able to see him through the darkness and she could see this man plain as day. Three, he wouldn't be talking like that. Riza's eyes narrowed at him.

"I refuse to die here, sir. And I'll be damned if you think you're getting out of this so easily either."

A ghost of a grin landed on Roy's lips as he finally turned his attention from the wood above them and met her eyes. "They are going to get the information they need, Lieutenant. They are going to get ahold of your father's research and then whoever they harm, whoever they slay, that blood will be on your hands too."

"Don't worry about that, I haven't even come close to telling them anything, sir."

The smile that had blessed his lips now held a twinge of melancholy. "I know, it's not you that I fear will give in, Lieutenant." His hand felt through the darkness until it embraced hers, intertwining their fingers.

"What are you saying, sir?" She was having mixed emotions about the situation and what her superior was trying to say; the gentle squeeze of his hand in hers seemed to alleviate all of her anxiety with that one simple motion, but his eyebrows were tugged down just enough to show his dismay at whatever thoughts seemed to be rampaging through his head. "Just know that I'm so sorry."

No. he wouldn't. He wouldn't dare hand over such delicate information, no matter what. He wouldn't just give up. She cursed her pessimistic mind for ruining her hallucination and imagining up such an unfortunate conversation. "Instead of being sorry, how about you just avoid _doing_ the something that you will have to be sorry for."

Roy's jaw flexed yet he did not respond. Riza's amber eyes shut tightly together when she had managed to remind herself how unhealthy it was to do this; having a full conversation with yourself and visualizing people. She would be discharged from the military if they ever found out. Those eyes snapped open with haste when she felt the comforting warmth leave her grasp. She glanced to her side and noted with a twinge of sadness that the envisioned Roy had indeed evanesced. A sigh left her still trembling lips; her body was so cold that it seemed to have gone completely numb and she was once again utterly alone in her tomb of darkness.

* * *

 _Three weeks prior…_

 _The bag still over her head, she felt thick hands hoist her over their shoulder with little grace or care. Luckily, it was padded with muscle, so the impact of his shoulder blade into her torso was of minimal discomfort. She scuffled tirelessly against the man in an effort to break free. Roy's voice was muffled by the sack she had witnessed them force over his own head, but it was frantically screaming her rank followed by a string of curses at their captors. The strangled, insistent tone of his pleas were wrenching her heart, causing her skirmish with the beast whose shoulder she was currently residing over to only increase in velocity._

" _Cut it out, bitch. You ain't getting loose, you're just pissin' me off." The vocal sound was that same familiar husky voice of her previous captor. She kicked him against the chest, but with no shoes, she was sure she had only managed to hurt herself. He shook her with his laughter. "I heard stories about you, but you ain't really livin' up to the hype." She cringed, only imagining what horrible tales had been spoken about her._

 _Roy's voice was drifting farther away as she assumed he was being drug out of the room. Her muscles tensed; where were they taking him? She knew she should be concerned about where she herself was being carried off too, but she just couldn't seem to muster up an ounce of worry for such a thing with her worries for Roy's safety clouding the need for her own._

 _She tried to close her eyes and focus on her surroundings. Her training had taught her how important it was to keep track of your location and not allow the enemy to disorient you. She tried to measure the steps the man carrying her was making by counting every time his shoulder shifted into her stomach. It felt like a fairly straight walk, meaning she was not being taken back to the first room she had been questioned in and it ended with a sharp left turn. The walk was jarring to where ever they were going, and ended with a jostling drop into a hard metal chair. She felt those calloused hands wrapping something like a nylon strap around her ankles and another around her waist before ultimately removing her shackles. Riza felt the tender ache around her wrists ebb slightly only to return tenfold as Barrett imprisoned her wrists once more in metal cuffs that were attached to the arms of the chair. He patted her shoulder, "Ya scared?" Riza wanted to scoff at the question but instead remained stoic and silent. She held no fear, not yet. No, at this point, all she felt was pure indignation._

" _Alright, Lieutenant, let's try some questions, hm?" The thick bag was ripped from her head to reveal a towering, pallid man with dirty blonde hair, dressed in a black suit. He looked like he was prepared to attend a business meeting not about to question a hostage. His arms were folded across his chest and his weight was shifted to one leg. His laid back demeanor only caused to infuriate the woman more. He had a sharp chin and overly defined cheek bones. His eyes were piercing and deadly; a dark blue that almost made them appear black. He was showing his teeth while flashing her a sinister smile. She narrowed her eyes at him but refused to respond. He let out a single humorous huff of air._

" _Tallen had told me you weren't much of a conversationalist. Hopefully I can change that." Her jaw flexed when he took a step towards her. "It's wonderful to meet you, Lieutenant Hawkeye. I'm Atticus Parker. I assume you've heard of me?" The arrogant question made Riza want to roll her eyes but she decided against it. His body bent at his waist as he leaned down to meet Riza at eye level. "You don't seem to be comprehending the seriousness of the situation you are in, Lieutenant. But don't worry, you'll understand soon enough." He paused after he spoke and just continued to stare at her as if awaiting some kind of response._

" _Riza Hawkeye, First Lieutenant, 317281894." Her voice was monotonous. Atticus sighed, that smirk still tugging at his lips. "Cute. I see you remember your training well." She continued staring at him but refused to give away anything. He reached out and stroked her cheek with his index finger._

" _Oh, Lieutenant. I know all about that pathetic excuse of a training program for torture techniques they teach you soldiers at the academy. You think you are tough, that you can withstand anything we do to you? You think that one course you took years ago has fully prepared you and your colonel for what is to come?"_

 _She continued her blank stare but she hated to admit his accuracy. The program at the academy was a joke. It was a program that the academy seemed to breeze over as if it was of non-importance. She felt that way back then and even more so now. However, she still had full faith in her strength and that of Roy's; they would make it through this. They would survive and the secrets would remain. She turned her head and nipped at the man's finger just as it was gliding above her chin, barely missing it. His gaze darkened, yanking his hand back to his side._

" _Feisty, aren't we?"_

 _He ushered towards a figure behind her that she couldn't see, then that bag was being forced back over her head, shrouding her world in black. "I'm greatly looking forward to our time together, Lieutenant. I'm very excited for the day you are begging me to stop; to end it all and let you die. Don't worry, I'm certain the day will come regardless of your stubborn resistance." His voice was at her ear now, "I wonder who will break first though: the Hero of Ishbal or the Hawk's Eye?"_

 _Her heart plummeted; they were going to torture him too. It seemed like an obvious assumption, but she had been trying to remain optimistic of Roy's role in this whole ordeal. Before she could dwell on it for too long, the rusty hinges of the chair let out a whine from neglect as she felt the back of the chair being leaned back until her spine was parallel with the floor._

" _If you decide you want to cooperate, just scream and I'll order them to stop."_

 _Stop what? She wondered. A pair of hands clamped down on either side of her face, holding her head straight. Suddenly, freezing liquid began seeping through the fabric over her face and into her eyes and nose. Riza cursed herself for gasping at the shock of subzero water, causing her to breathe in a large portion of it. She began gagging and coughing, attempting to remove the liquid from her lungs, but the water kept coming. Due to the hands preventing her from moving her head away from the source, she found it impossible to choke all of the water back up._

 _It continued pouring over her face for a long minute until finally coming to an abrupt halt. She felt like she was drowning. Riza couldn't breathe and was still gagging on the mouthful of liquid. The hands released her and she tilted her head to the side so the water could drizzle out. Another wracking fit of coughs overpowered her. She could hear cackling between each intake of breath and knew they were mocking her._

 _Before she had even managed to completely rid her lungs of the water, those hands clamped back down on her face and the water once again overtook her. It felt like they were doing this for larger chunks of time with every new interval. After every time, and Atticus had stopped chuckling under his breath, he would ask her a question. And every time, she would refuse to respond with the proper answer._

" _Where is the research?"_

" _Riza Hawkeye, First Lieutenant,_ _service number_ _317281894."_

 _Back into the icy tundra. She was spluttering and hacking, desperate to dislodge the liquid from her airway._

" _Where is the research, Lieutenant?"_

" _Riza Hawkeye, First…" She couldn't finish the memorized phrase. All she could concentrate on was the water sloshing around in her lungs. the uncomfortable added weight in her chest had her worried for the necessary organs. "…Lieutenant, service num-"_

 _The downpour of water interrupted her and proceeded this time for so long that she feared she was going to accidentally breathe while it was still falling again. Her lungs were ready to burst from holding her breath for so long and because they were begging Riza to remove the debris from within them._

" _I'll ask you again…" This continued the same for what felt like an eternity. Riza eyelids began involuntarily drifting shut. She had given up on attempting a response to any of the questions asked to her and instead opted for drawing in deep breaths when she could. Atticus finally put her chair back into the upright position, making it much easier for her to cough out the liquid. Riza sagged causing her shoulders to bow over her chest and her hands hung limp on their respective rests._ _"We'll be doing this every day until you decide to cooperate, Hawkeye." His words sent a wave of dread through her. "But don't worry, we aren't done today either. I don't have another meeting until tomorrow and I told Tallen to take care of the colonel today for me, so we have all night."_

* * *

The silence now was so thick, her heart beat seemed to resonate around her like a tribal drum. Though the female soldier was not much of a devout person, she had found herself silently praying to a higher power on more than one occasion, pleading to it for Roy to be excused from this hell. That somehow, Roy would find a way to escape, though she knew him well enough to know he would not simply leave her behind. Even if he had the chance to run, she knew he would refuse to abandon her; a fact that vexed her greatly.

"Stubborn fool." It came out in a grating mutter followed by a slew of dry heaves. Riza startled at the coarseness of her own voice from lack of use. It took her a moment to regain her composure. Once she did, Riza placed her palms up against the lid and tried pushing as hard as she could to see if it would budge. This had not been the first time she tried this; almost every time she was put in the box she would attempt to nudge the lid off as hard as she could. Unfortunately, with her limited strength at the moment, the minimal amount of room she had to utilize in order to work up a kick or a shove, and due to the almost crippling pain in the lower left side of her torso, thrusting the lid off proved to be impossible. Unsurprisingly, once again, it was of no use; the wood was solid and the lock was inauspiciously in place. She groaned under her breath in frustration.

That's when she finally heard the uplifting sound of keys jingling against a key ring and it was coming closer. "Alright, let her out and we'll see if she's ready to talk." She heard a pair of bumbling hands work through the keys before one slid into the lock. The moment that lid came off, Riza took in a greedy inhale of the fresh air. She held her arm over her eyes for a long moment before they could readjust to the bright overhead lighting. Riza had never been more thankful to see those familiar faces beside her, staring at her with cruel smirks. "Hey, sweetheart, time for some more fun."

* * *

 _Two weeks prior…_

 _It took both Barrett and Tallen to fetch Riza from her new, lone cell. "Lieutenant, darling, it's futile. You're just going to tire yourself out before we even get to the questions." She fought tirelessly against them, which was easier to do now that they no longer left her in shackles while in her cell. After yanking and tugging, Riza was able to break an arm loose long enough to swing at Tallen and connect with his jaw. The impact led to Tallen dropping her legs but to her misfortune, Barrett managed to grab her free arm once more before she had time to cause any more harm, then coerced it into a painful upward hold to prevent Riza from fighting back without having to harm herself._

" _Fucking bitch!" His voice was tainted with indignation. Those eyes narrowed into slits. He was still holding his hand over the lower left portion of his jaw where the brunt of the jab had landed, but the moment he moved his hand, Riza saw a gaping, bloodied hole between his maxillary lateral incisor and his first bicuspid. "You knocked out my fucking tooth!"_

" _Watch your language, Mr. Greggs. There's a lady present." She stated. Her face didn't change in expression but her voice resonated with sarcasm. A disgruntled growl erupted from the man holding his dislodged tooth in his palm just as he began his trek towards the woman. He had a hand lifted up as if he were preparing to strike her, until something seemed to click in his head. All signs of anger subsided from his features, being replaced at a frighteningly quick pace with an ominous sneer. "Barrett? Put her in the box."_

* * *

Ever since that day, her fear of the box seemed to only increase with every passing experience within it. _It's just a box._ She would repeat this fact like a mantra in her head, but deep down, she knew it was so much more. She had begun to prefer the endless torture/questioning sessions than to when they put her in the box, well, _almost._ Her fingers softly grazed her side through the material of her dress. Even though it was a light touch, the stinging pain caused her to jolt.

* * *

 _One week ago…_

" _Let's backtrack a bit, you look a little out of it, Lieutenant."_

 _She knew he was right; she must look quite disheveled. She hadn't been allowed anything to eat or drink and she had also been interrupted every hour or so which prevented her from getting any sleep. Her hair tangled and covered in filth. Her skin, completely devoid of moisture. Then of course there was also the fact that she was still sporting the skimpy, black dress from the night of the date. Having no shoes has led her feet to be almost completely cloaked in dirt, grime, and various other debris they had picked up from the unkempt prison. All in all, she was rather thankful the colonel was not around to witness her appearance._

" _Remember how last week you attacked me?"_

 _Riza refocused on the man whose back was facing her while he was messing with something she couldn't quite see on the far table. "Fond memories, we have." She observed the man's shoulders tense in frustration._

" _And do you also remember your first night here with us?"_

 _Her eyebrows knitted together; she had no idea what he was wanting her to remember about that night, until he turned around to face her. Shuddering breaths racked the woman's body. Dread tugged at Riza's gut. Fear grappled around the soldier's kidneys. She could hear her heart thumping in her ears. Her fight or flight instincts kicked in; she tugged with great fervor at the cuffs clasping her hands firmly to the metal chair._

" _Atticus didn't quite approve of this idea, but to hell with him." He was coming towards her now, holding the familiar, scalding hot iron by the center of the rod. Marco was with him this time in place of his usual companion, Barrett, and was leering down at Riza while repositioning the chair into the identical position they had been using to water board her. She was combating against the metal and nylon tethers holding her firmly in the chair. She knew the terror in her eyes was evident, but all she could focus on was finding a way out of this chair before the deranged man that seemed to be teetering on the edge of insanity, permanently imprinted his brand into her flesh. She couldn't; she_ refused _to give him the satisfaction of putting his mark on her. His untamed eyes were now looming directly over her; her own eyes enlarged and her breath hitched in her throat. He was cackling wildly as he held up the glowing red symbol._

 _"Get the hell away from me."_

 _"Fair is fair, darling. You messed up my body, now I'm going to mess up yours."_

 _"You can repair a tooth."_

 _"And you will learn your place."_

 _Marco tugged Riza's dress up past her belly button; and held it in place for Tallen to do his work. She was thankful for one thing: that she had the chair against her back to hide the one thing they had been searching for. Bile rose in the back of Riza's throat at the roaming, ravenous stare from both men above her at the site of her half-naked form._ _He ran his fingers along the hem of her underwear eliciting unwanted goosebumps to rise in response to his feather-light trail._

 _"Has Mustang seen this much of you before?"_

 _She didn't respond, still focusing on the branding iron._

 _"Hm, speaking of which, how do you think that colonel of yours will react to my... artwork?"_

He'll be disgusted and furious, just as I am, _she thought._

 _"I don't think you want to find that out."_

 _Her response was supposed to be a hopeful threat, but it only seemed to feed the fire of chaos behind those sinister eyes. Tallen began to draw a light circle with his index finger on the lower left side to her belly button. "I'm going to put it right here." She tugged wildly at her restraints. Riza silently begged and pleaded for a miracle; for Roy to randomly appear, as he liked to so often do, and snap his fingers. Her eyebrows were tugged tightly together. She knew her knuckles had to be stark white from the tight grip she had on the arms of the chair. Tallen turned his gaze back to meet his victim's. He almost seemed to relish in the fear she knew was tangible in her eyes._

 _Riza could barely find her voice again after seeing that crazed look in the man's eyes and after realization hit: Roy was not coming. She was not going to be saved, yet again, from a second monster looking to use her skin as their own. "Please, don't." The words held little sound; it was more of a hushed movement of the lips as the woman was desperate to prevent the past from rhyming with itself. He clearly had not heard her silent plea or just did not care fore he smirked down at her._

" _Now, Lieutenant." He held the searing iron right above the patch of skin he had traced only moments ago with his finger._

" _Give me a scream."_

* * *

The passage of time since then seemed exaggerated and slow. Riza had been seized from her holding cell every couple of hours, never giving her enough time to regain any strength through restful sleep, to repeat the water-boarding exercise which would be followed up by a variety of different techniques, only interrupted long enough to ask her questions. Because they had not given her enough water or food to satiate her, her throat was dry so she opted to just remain silent instead of responding with her name, rank, and service number as she had been trained. Tallen and Atticus seemed to switch off every other time with her and neither seemed to be growing impatient at this point. They both seemed to be enjoying themselves far too much. Riza honestly wondered if asking her questions about flame alchemy were just a formality at this point. Did they even care about getting the secrets anymore? Or was this just turning into a disgusting, pleasurable experiment for them now?

Riza expelled a hiss from the exertion of clambering out of the box. A chill stung her toes as they carefully stepped onto the pavement. She was careful not to move to quickly as to avoid agitating the growing infection she knew was present where Tallen had left his imprint on her. Her legs quaked beneath her weight from not having been used much as of late, which led to her falling forward into Tallen's outstretched arms.

"Well this is a change."

The skin beneath her fingertips was warm to the touch as the soldier grabbed hold of the man's upper arms to steady herself. Much of her strength seemed to fail her as she desperately mustered all she could in an effort to regather her footing. This strain proved fruitless when her legs instantly gave out and the once tall, proud soldier was sent plummeting back into her enemy's arms like a frail doe. His body shook against her while he laughed at her failed endeavor.

"My, my, such stubborn resistance you have, Lieutenant. Unfortunately for you, it will not get you anywhere while you're here."

She managed to glare up at him beneath her soaking, matted hair. She knew she did not look intimidating with her trembling lips, clattering teeth, and languid demeanor but she still wanted to show her defiance to the depraved individual, especially after the inhumane act he had done to defile her body.

Without warning, her gaze seemed to go off-kilter; everything appeared muddled and fuzzy. A feeling of unsteadiness trekked through her body.

"Get the Lieutenant an I.V., her skin feels feverish."

Her head lolled to the side when all strength she was using to hold it upright seemed to abandon her with haste.

"We'll continue our round of questions once she is well. Goddammit, Barrett, get Atticus in here!"

She could no longer sense her legs and had the impetuous thought in her haze that maybe they had been taken from her.

"Don't worry, I won't let you die so easily, Miss Riza…"

That was the last thing she had heard. Unfortunately there was something in the sentence he had spoken that sent a wave of dread crashing into her. She tried to focus enough to understand what Tallen had said, but she couldn't manage to recall anything but her name being spoken. Fluid she knew wasn't really there seemed to build up in her ears until all words sounded like nothing more than a cluttered moan of inconsistent babbling. The fuzzy figures faded out to black. "No, it's too dark." She couldn't hear her voice; Riza wasn't sure if she had spoken out loud or if she had just thought it but she didn't care. She was out of the box, so why was this happening? Where was this new blackness coming from?! They just got her out of that damn casket, she would be damned if they were going to put her right back in it! Her heart thumped vehemently against her ribs.

"Colonel, help…. Me…" The thought was selfish, and in vain. Before she knew what was happening, Riza's body fell flush with something dense and tepid as she ultimately gave in to syncope.

* * *

 **Author's Note: It is late, I am absolutely exhausted, please take the time to review and let me know if I should continue with this story.**

 **Next chapter you'll get some Roy vs. Atticus action and our favorite couple may be reunited.**


	6. Chapter 6: Putting Out The Flame

**Author's Note: I know it took a lot longer than I planned to get this uploaded, but here it is. Oh, and fun fact! The next chapter is also pretty much finished because I had to split this into two chapters, otherwise it would've been waayyy too long. haha Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. This is Roy's experience. And YES. This story will have a happy ending. I just like to drag my characters through hell before showing them the light. lol**

 **Thank you all so much for the support and the many reviews! (: Each review gives me that little push I need in order to get my fingers moving and churn these chapters out! So it's thanks to you guys that this chapter is complete. So, really, thank you. You are greatly appreciated! :D**

 **(I'm tired, as usual, so I'll do any necessary edits tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't need too many if any.)**

* * *

Chapter Six: _Putting Out the Flame_

 _Torture: It's one thing to learn about it, to study it in graphic detail, to experience a minimal degree of some types of it in order to fully understand just what it would feel like; to convince yourself that if you were ever in such a situation, that you were strong enough to withstand it and to maintain your sanity. It's another thing entirely to actually experience it or live with knowing that the one person that you trust with your existence and your very soul is suffering to it due to you, and the only way to make it stop is to go behind that person's back and give away all of her secrets; secrets she wanted erased from the world so badly, she had you burn away the majority of the evidence of it from her own flesh. I didn't care what they did to me; not because I could take it, not because I was trained in this, simply because I knew she was holding on, counting on me to hold on too._

* * *

He tried to contain the agonizing screams erupting from within with every slice of the blade, but failed miserably. The pain was unimaginable as each cut seemed deeper and to drag slower across his flesh with every new incision. He could feel the viscous ruby tears crying from each newly opened wound, dribbling in thick dollops down his chest and torso to land in a lagoon around his filth covered toes. He had lost count at this point as to exactly how many times they had taken the dagger to his skin, merely focusing on preserving his consciousness.

They were continuing to obnoxiously ask a singular question for the complex answer they had been searching for this whole time, "Well?" The tip of the blade dug into the right side of his ribcage, sinking in gradually until he was sure it was connecting with bone. A groan slid past his clenched teeth. The wielder of the knife yanked down slowly to create yet another unnecessary incision. This had been going on for what felt like hours, but he knew that couldn't be accurate. "Well?" Roy was breathing deeply, trying to regain his composure. There was a black bag over his head so he couldn't see when the razorblade was going to strike or where it would land next, adding to his already heightened anxiety. Another slice, this time it was only centimeters from his spine. "Perhaps that is enough of this for now." He could tell by the calm, collected voice that it was Atticus who was speaking. His voice lowered slightly, "We don't need another prisoner getting sick from open wounds."

As far as Mustang knew, the only prisoners these people had were himself and the Lieutenant. Was Riza sick? His heart was racing. At the words 'open wounds,' he was having difficulty not picturing her in a similar predicament as he was in currently with one of these monsters slicing her up and allowing the lacerations to fester until she would deteriorate from the inside. "Where is the Lieutenant? What have you bastards done to her?!" His voice, slightly muffled beneath the thick sack, wavered with worry. Before he got any response, something coarse was palmed against one of his open cuts. A loud, unhinged bellow forced itself from deep within Roy's chest at the unanticipated excruciating, burning sensation seeping into the cut; it was salt. A scorching agony that was only surpassed by his unsuppressed guilt for the burns he had inflicted on Riza all of those years ago. Was this how it felt for her? Is this the kind of harrowing anguish he had put her through? Another cup of salt was thrust flush against his flesh, provoking yet another unholy wail from the colonel. He had to regain control. He already knew they were purposely doing this one at a time to drag out the torment for him, so he had to prepare himself for the next palm full of the sodium-laced torture device. The 'salting' seemed to extend for a longer fraction of time than the actual incisions themselves. Once they had finished with each wound, tremors were wracking Roy's body. They had yet to unleash him from the chains that imprisoned his arms in an extended position above his head, attaching to the ceiling and a second set around his ankles attaching into the floor, but the bag was swiftly tugged from his head to finally allow him to see his captors.

He had to blink a few times in order to adjust his eyes to the bright fluorescent lights overhead. "Due to your lack of cooperation, this will be your new sleeping arrangement, Colonel. It may not seem like a big deal now, but I promise you, sleep deprivation is far worse than one would think." Atticus flashed Roy a sadistic smile, "Think about how important protecting your precious teacher's research truly is to you. I'll be back to give you another chance to submit. For now, I must be off to check on that precious Lieutenant of ours." The colonel growled, preparing to respond with an ineffective threat, but Atticus was already out of the cell and sauntering away down the hall. "Goddammit! Leave her alone!" The curse echoed off of the walls, but upon getting no response, Roy realized he was truly once again alone.

The tactics they were using on the colonel were textbook at this point. Food was scarce: Roy would only receive barely more than crumbs of stale bread at random intervals. For the first couple of days, he was given nothing at all though, so this was an improvement. It wasn't until after the torture began that they started giving him enough to barely survive on. After going so many days with no water, Roy was careless when they gave him the first bottle of water. It was only half full and his thirst was begging to be quenched. He foolishly assumed he would be given more the next day considering it was only a half full bottle, and immediately emptied the contents. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him until it was already too late, the half empty bottle of water was meant to fuel him for the entire week. He was much more conservative with the second portion given to him, opting to only have a small sip when he absolutely needed it. It was only natural that now they would take control over his sleeping schedule as well.

They had ripped his shirt to shreds during interrogation, so he stood with his chest bare, aside from the open punctures and clotting blood marring it, and was also sopping wet from the simulated drowning they had done with him only hours ago; exposing him to the harsh chill of the room. So, they had finally chosen the insomniac's torture method which Mustang vaguely remembered learning briefly back at the academy. It was a breezed over topic, made out to be an easy method to endure, which had him thinking his captors to be fools for choosing it over some of the more sinister methods they had learned about. However, with already very little sleep, and now being forced to stand in such a rigid, upright position, Roy was not looking forward to not being able to regain his strength through the rare bouts of sleep he was able to get before.

* * *

 _The tub was filled to the brim with frigid water. Barrett forced the colonel to his knees in front of the vat; his hair clenched in the bear-man's fist and the other hand placed firmly on his shoulder to keep him from trying to move. Atticus knelt down on the opposite side of the tub to meet Roy's eyes. "Where's the research, Colonel?"_

 _"Screw you."_

 _The arctic water was like a million pin needles piercing his skin. He tried escaping from the shocking cold, wriggling his shoulders wildly to elude the hands submerging his head beneath the water's surface. Vastly contrasting warm air soared happily into his lungs once he was lifted from the vat. "I hate repeating myself, Colonel. I want to make this as easy as possible for you. All you have to do is-"_

 _"Colonel Roy Mustang. 178-"_

 _"Oh, enough! If you start rattling off that idiotic soldier shit, I'm going to make this a lot worse for you. I'll toss some hot wires in that tub while your face is in it if you want to play that game."_

 _Roy clenched his jaw. His eyes narrowed but were slightly hidden beneath his unkempt, overgrown mat of wet hair that was sticking to his forehead._

 _"I have nothing else to offer you."_

 _Atticus sighed. Two fingers squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I'm growing weary of your lack of cooperation."_

 _"You might as well drown me. I'm not telling you anything."_

 _Atticus narrowed his eyes. "Stubborn. Very well." He gestured with two fingers to the man with a firm hold on Roy seconds before his head was forced back beneath the icy liquid. He truly thought Atticus was going to take his advice and allow him to die. His lungs ached, pleading with their master to breathe. puffs of smoke or fog clouded his mind and vision. Just as Roy was about to give in to his lungs' request, Barrett yanked him from the water and threw him onto his back on the unforgiving cement. "Don't wish for death so readily, Colonel." Roy was sputtering and sucking in oxygen in excess. His eyes were still shut when he heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to him. Atticus knelt beside Roy, resting a hand on his shivering shoulder. "You still have a Lieutenant to fight for."_

* * *

After being in this contraption for who knows how long, Roy finally began giving into his exhaustion. Unfortunately, he quickly found out that if he ever started to doze off and allow his body to slide toward the floor, the tug on the chains would trigger an electric jolt that would shock him back awake. He had only experienced the shock once now, giving into his body's desire to rest and was feeling far too weary to maintain the stiff upright posture. The electricity had obviously done its job though because since then, Roy had not slept a wink. The exhaustion in his sleep deprived mind and in his jittering knees from standing for so long in one place seemed to be a tangible weight at this point. Holding up his arms was molding into a laborious effort; a dull ache resonated in his shoulders and neck, his fingertips tingled. Every time Roy blinked, it felt like someone was tugging down on his eyelids to try and keep them closed, making it quite a task to reopen them. The uncomfortable position his arms were locked in was the only thing that didn't truly bother him any more simply because he could no longer feel his arms due to the unfair fact that they were able to fall asleep. His legs were threatening to buckle beneath him, but he forced himself to remain stoic, staring straight ahead at Tallen, who was apparently serving on guard duty for now. He was outside of the cell, flipping through a magazine with disinterest.

"You want to know a secret, Colonel?"

After going so long in the deafening silence, the sound of the man's voice made Mustang jump. He held his hazy gaze on Tallen, who's gaze was still focused on the periodical between his hands. "Alright." Roy couldn't deny his curiosity was peaked. His ears perked up, anxiously awaiting what Tallen had to say.

"You were not the last of Berthold's apprentices."

Roy's eyes widened. What was he saying? Was he saying that he been trained by Master Hawkeye?

"I'm no stranger to Riza. In fact, we got to know each other very, _very_ well back in the day." There was a subtle tug at the side of Tallen's lips that made Roy's blood run cold. "and I'm quite upset she has still not recognized me."

"I'm guessing that's why you are so adamantly pursuing her father's research?"

Noting that Tallen was still absentmindedly flipping through the magazine while revealing such shocking news irritated Roy. He wasn't sure if his heightened degree of irritation was simply due to his lack of sleep or if it was because of the way Tallen insinuated a deeper relationship with Riza than he cared to believe.

"It's rightfully mine. He promised it to me and then that bitch ruined everything."

The colonel yanked at the bonds enclosing his wrists with blind fury, forgetting about the aftermath of such an action. "Don't you dare-" He was cut off as a tremor of electricity pulsed through his veins. "You're..." He had to catch his breath. Roy hated feeling so weak, especially allowing it to show in front of the enemy. He gave himself an extra moment to compose himself and find his voice. "You're lying. There's no way Master Hawkeye would trust someone like you."

"Yet, while he was not shy about his hatred for the military and all it stood for, he still seemed to be foolish enough to trust you: a dog of the military. So why not me, Mustang? Hm? What makes you think you are so much better than me, so much more worthy of Flame Alchemy than myself?" He had finally lowered the magazine to his lap and was glaring at the shackled, shirtless man behind the bars. Mustang thought back to his first night here in Purgatory, before he and the Lieutenant were separated.

 _Roy was lying flat on his back with one hand underneath his head in place of a pillow, his other hand was resting on the small of the back of his subordinate. Unfortunately, due to her restraints, Riza could only find any comfort in lying on her stomach. Riza's head was nuzzled up in the crook of Roy's neck with her ear resting over his heart. They had laid in a comfortable silence for a while now, just happy to know they were both safe; for now. They were both awake, staring off in random space until Riza finally spoke in a hushed whisper. "You know there's one thing that has been bothering me since our team was assigned this mission…" She squinted her eyes as if this would help her to recall something long forgotten, "There's something about Tallen Greggs that, I don't know, seems familiar somehow." Roy lifted a single eyebrow at her. "Like an old boyfriend or something?" There was a little humor in his voice as he spoke. He felt her shift her head against his chest in what he assumed was her shaking her head at him. "I can't say for sure why, I just feel like I have met him before...and I have a very unnerving feeling about it." Before they had any more time to discuss the matter further, their ears perked at the sound of shoes against the damp, cement floor nearing their cell, indicating that their time together was almost up._

A dry lump had formed in Roy's throat that he was attempting to swallow as he spoke. "I still don't believe you." That was a lie. Riza claimed to feel some kind of familiarity with the criminal, just unsure of its roots. He had a feeling he was no longer curious to find out what exactly Tallen had to share with him.

"No?" He chuckled, tossing the magazine to the ground beside the chair and walking over towards the bars of the cell. "My real name is Gideon Verrot. I was there when you weren't. I was the lucky one that got to pretend to care enough about picking up the pieces of Riza's broken heart and mending it with lies after you left. She sent letter after letter to you. I noticed that each letter grew shorter and shorter as time went by. After an entire year of no response, she gave up and began focusing all of her time on playing with the gun her grandfather sent her years before and of course, spending time with me."

He flashed a devilish grin at Roy. "She was such a stubborn, feisty thing back then too. Refused to even talk to me for months at the beginning of my stay. Except, she didn't have as much fight in her back then. Or maybe she just lacked the training to protect herself that she has now. Either way, we had our fun... until she made up a bunch of lies about me to her father all because I had asked her about the research. Needless to say, he kicked me out. I tried to convince him that his daughter was a lying bitch, but naturally, he didn't believe me. After leaving there, I decided I didn't need a teacher. I taught myself alchemy. I've mastered the basics and a few fancy tricks, so now, all I need is to learn flame alchemy. Atticus and I may be after the same thing, but our goals differ greatly. He is wanting to sell the research for profit. I just want the power; and to shove it in that dead bastard's face."

All of this new information was swirling around in Roy's mind in an incoherent jumble. Could he even believe anything this man said? Had Riza truly turned to such a monster for comfort and companionship after he abandoned her? There was a treacherous amount of guilt adding itself to the pile already gnawing away at his insides. He knew Riza had her secrets, as did he. But this felt like something he deserved to have heard about. _Why?_ Why did he feel that way? It was his own fault her father had to seek out another apprentice in order to pay the bills and keep their miniature family afloat. It was his fault she was alone and left in the wake he left her in when he finally confessed his intentions for the future; a future he claimed she had no place in. Of course she wouldn't feel the necessity in confiding in him with such a fragile moment in her life; a rare time for the headstrong woman to allow her shattered heart to lead her in place of logic. A more burning question was now plaguing the colonel: what had he done to her? He may have never heard her speak of her father's past apprentices, including this one, but he did know the woman well enough, even back then, to know she would not go tattling to her father about _anything._ Something must have happened for Berthold to question his daughter's relationship or safety with this man. The muscles in Roy's jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth tighter together. There were vital pieces of this puzzle that Gideon was leaving out.

Before the cogs in his mind were fully able to churn out any legitimacy from what Tallen, or _Gideon_ had said, the man let out a wild cackle. "I do find it quite enjoyable to see the hurt and confusion so blatantly on your face. I'm assuming she had never mentioned me to you before? Oh, and here I thought you two were _so_ close." Mustang gritted his teeth.

"We used to be close. We are no more than superior and subordinate now." His voice was monotonous in an effort to hide his inner turmoil from his words.

Gideon slammed his fist against one of the metal bars, "Bullshit! You say that as if you are reading a line from a page. Don't act like I'm some fool! I know the relationship you two have runs much deeper than your petty military positions."

The words the man was speaking sounded slurred and incoherent, as if he was intoxicated or also lacking sleep. It took Mustang a long minute to realize it was because his own brain was functioning at an irregular pace; taking longer than usual to organize the intake of words properly for Roy to comprehend.

"It sounds like someone is jealous of this imaginary relationship you think the Lieutenant and I are sharing." Gideon didn't like that. His hands wrapped around the bars separating him from the man in chains.

"Jealous?" He lifted an eyebrow at the Colonel. "I have nothing to be jealous of. She may have a different rendition of our tale, but I promise you, she hasn't forgotten me." Slits formed where his eyes once were. He lowered his voice. "She never will. Riza Hawkeye will always be _mine._ "

"I thought you said she hasn't even recognized you."

Roy could tell he was getting under Gideon's skin just by the twitch of his eye. "Whether she remembers who I was twelve years ago or who I am to her now, it's still _me_ she's remembering." Roy couldn't help but laugh out loud. The laugh sounded maniacal due to his current tired state of mind.

"You're pathetic. I'm beginning to think this whole thing is just a tragic, one-sided love story."

Gideon tilted his head to the side with a smile, "I don't think you can categorize what I've done to her under 'love stories.'"

Mustang's muscles tensed. "What the hell did you do to her?"

Gideon flashed him an insidious smirk before stepping away from the bars. "Too bad it's too late for you to find that out from her yourself."

Roy's heart sunk. "What do you mean?"

"I think I've told you enough for now, Colonel." He turned around and walked away.

"Hey, Verrot! Get your ass back here!"

Blood filled Roy's ears as the heavy silence returned, leaving only the sound of his erratic heart thumping in his chest; he was alone again. Only this time, he had far too much to think about. Horrid images of Riza writhing beneath the crushing grasp of Gideon. Her lips forming Roy's name but no sound could escape. Her amber eyes wide with trepidation as the incandescence that should be illuminating there was gradually fading. He resorted to shaking his head in an effort to purge the tormenting images away. he needed to stop allowing his imagination to control his thoughts. He couldn't afford to lose his head now that sleep was no longer something he could indulge in to rid himself of conscious struggles; allow himself to be immersed in his dreams and his mind to escape from the current Hell he was physically residing.

Roy was no stranger to restless nights, especially after the war. However, this was not the same. He could at least lay in his bed on those nights and if the loneliness of the night got to be too much for him, he could selfishly dial Riza's number at three in the morning and hear her voice to relieve him of some of the burdening guilt that was keeping him awake. Something that always troubled him was not only how quickly she would answer but also the subtle inflections in her voice that Roy never dared question her about. The lack of that thick, tired voice as if one has just woken up was never on the other end of the line. She always sounded wide awake. It also surprised him that he was never scolded for dialing her so late, or so early whichever way she looked at it, but instead she seemed to talk to him more by starting the majority of the light-hearted topics to discuss. Even in his current predicament, he felt his dry lip crack apart and bleed as a small smile tugged at his lips at the memory. _Memory._ Is that all she was now? Where was she? Was she suffering the way they were hoping to make him suffer, or had Gideon purposely phrased his sentence to indicate her untimely demise? He could no longer cage his irritation and allowed a bellow of rage escape his throat.

He couldn't let himself dwell much on thoughts of his lieutenant's predicament, unless he wanted to assist in his own personal torture, so he instead tried to focus his thoughts away from the talk he had just had with Verrot and away from any horrifying images of his lieutenant laying on a filth covered floor with a dying pulse. To put his mind at ease, he decided to focus on thoughts of his other subordinates instead. He imagined Hughes at home, snuggling up to his beautiful daughter and loving wife. Breda snacking away on a sandwich with his feet up on the coffee table. He wondered where Edward and Alphonse could be now and what trouble they were managing to get themselves in. Or Havoc, sitting in a bar or a restaurant attempting to hit on any woman that would have the misfortune of walking past him alone, leading to him ultimately getting slapped or a glass of water thrown in his face for saying something perverse. That reminded him of the night they were taken. The last time he had seen Havoc, the man was unconscious with his face in a puddle of liquor on the counter from where he had accidentally spilt his drink before succumbing to the sedatives discreetly placed in all of their drinks. Where was he now then? They hadn't captured him; that he knew. But what did that mean for his friend? Had they simply left him there, to wake on his own to an empty bar? Did the others find him shortly after realizing something was not right when none of them had maintained contact? Was his team searching for _them_ now? Or had they just been presumed dead?

Again, Roy had to force the negative thoughts from his mind and focus once more on the times at the office he once found tedious but was now praying to live for once more in the future. The sound of silence due to Riza's stern stares when anyone deviated from their paperwork. The sound of pens scribbling against parchment and papers being shuffled around. The stench of Havoc's cigarettes as he puffed away at his desk when Riza was out on an errand and couldn't get after him for his disgusting habit. The smell of Riza's hair when she would lean down to lay a new stack of papers on Roy's desk for him to sign. The subtle, caring glances she would pass him when no one else in the office was paying attention. The rare smiles she would flash him when he was ranting, or pouting about his minute stresses in hopes of giving him some relief. The terror on that same face at the sight of their captors coming for them in the cell when they were last together. The thought of how he imagined she would look if he saw her right now; torn, battered and bruised from whatever these monsters were putting her through for something he could so easily give them. There he went again, back to his pessimistic thoughts. He growled under his breath at his own inability to stay focused on anything positive to help his mind at least escape this hell when his body physically couldn't. He decided against allowing his brain to do anymore activities and instead chose to just waste time glaring at the empty plastic chair outside of the cell with the abandoned magazine lying in an unorganized heap by the chair's legs. Thinking about nothing seemed to be his safest option at this point, so the colonel chose to indulge in the solitary silence surrounding him for now.

* * *

He wasn't sure how many hours or days he had been forced to stand in this same position with no sleep, but he was definitely beginning to miss what he had once taken for granted. His mind felt like it was completely unattached to his body at this point. It felt like a mere vessel to house his consciousness; his head felt too heavy for his neck to hold up anymore, now that it felt like it was filled with gravel and grit and maybe a sandwich. What? He was definitely in need of REM. He heard the sound of muffled sobs coming from the corner of his cell and instinctively lifted his heavy skull, the weight causing his neck to strain. It took a moment for his blurry gaze to pull into focus the figure crouched across the room with its face hidden beneath a mess of golden hair. "Lieutenant? Is that you?" His own voice sounded foreign to him. His heart skipped in his chest at the site of what he hoped to be that familiar woman he had presumed dead. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection of the specter, Roy noticed that this was no full grown woman cowering in the corner of the room; it was a small, sobbing child. The hope in his heart vanished being once again replaced by the numbness that seemed to be his body's defense against the pain he knew would inevitably arise once he was fully able to accept her demise to be real. The child was wearing a plain white dress that looked almost like an over-sized shirt and her knees were tugged up to her chest with her face was buried between them. "Roy," That voice. It was so haunting, so familiar. "Where were you?" He frowned, unsure of what she was speaking of. "You weren't there. You just left and I was alone again." Onyx eyes widened. Was he hallucinating? "You left and I was alone with that-that monster!"

"Riza, I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

"Would it have changed anything?"

The colonel winced, knowing that no matter how much it hurt, he knew he still would have left. It was something he firmly believed he had to do; it was his duty to the people of Amestris, something he still firmly believed. He allowed his gaze to drift to the uninteresting grime on his feet.

"I knew it wouldn't. You said you cared about me, did you mean that?"

His eyes snapped back up, "Yes, of course I did! I still do! Riza, please, why didn't you tell me? What happened with Gideon?" He saw her shoulders tense and her toes curled in when he spoke the man's name. She gave no response but he could still hear her hushed cries. "Riza..."

She finally lifted her head, and Roy's entire body went cold. There were heavy purple bruises lining the side of her face and jaw. Her lower lip appeared to have been busted open at one point but now only a linear trail of dried blood was left. It took him a second to gather himself to speak. "Is this what he did to you?"

She shocked him by shaking her head. "No. This is what _you_ did to me."

The colonel slammed his eyelids together. This wasn't real, this _couldn't_ be real. His mind was messing with him. He opened his eyes, hoping to be once again alone, but instead now saw the girl lying in a pool of blood right in front of him. He gasped, tearing his eyes away from the horrifying image. With no other option, Roy tugged his arms down as hard as he could muster, holding them in place to allow an extended electric shock to rush through him. The sound of screaming filled his ears which only made him tug down harder on the chains. It only took a few seconds before Roy realized the screaming was his own. He finally allowed his arms to return to their assigned position, ordering the shock to cease its attack. Onyx eyes hesitantly opened one at a time, afraid of what they would see. Fortunately, the imaginary girl had vanished. He sighed, but still felt no comfort after the talk he had just had with the hallucination. Real or not, it was all true. It was his fault, everything was his fault. Resolute in what he must do, Roy vowed to himself that if his lieutenant was still alive, and he had to convince himself not to believe otherwise, to do whatever it took to get her out of here. Promise be damned. The research was not worth her life, not to him.

* * *

Three days. With or without any real indication of time other than counting how many occasions he would be pulled from his cell for interrogation, he was positive of it. It had been three days since anyone had said anything to him about his lieutenant. The rest of his stay, it seemed someone always brought up his subordinate at one point or another when they wanted to elicit a strong reaction from Roy. They would give him subtle hints as to what they had been doing to her and made sure to never give away too many details. Roy could tell holding back on each, disturbing detail was driving Gideon insane; he was dying to see the expression on Roy's face when he would delve into the sadistic facts. Unfortunately for him, someone must have instructed no one to tell him more than the minimum which proved to be smart, considering it drove Roy mad not knowing precisely what the condition of his lieutenant was. After being here for however long it had been now, the colonel had grown used to their teasing and hateful comments about Riza because at least it meant she was still alive. But now, it had been three days and not even Gideon had brought her up. What did this mean? Why had everyone suddenly stopped talking about her?

" _I heard you punched one of our associates."_

 _Roy's eyebrows tugged down; he glared at the well-dressed man in front of him._

" _Bruised his cheek pretty good. He was quite upset with you."_

 _He had been pacing around the room for a while before he finally halted right in front of Roy. "But don't worry, he got his payback already." A devilish grin contorted the criminal's face after he spoke, eliciting a sinking feeling in Roy's stomach. "I heard she put up quite a fight. I'll admit, I didn't think you two would hold out this long. But I think we've got her close to breaking…" The man trailed off. A dark chuckle came from the other side of the room. His eyes turn to meet Tallen's gaze once he finished his laughing fit. He had been wearing a smirk on his face since he had first entered the room and leaned himself against the wall as if something had been amusing him._

" _Oh, she's a feisty little thing that's for sure." Tallen pushed himself away from the wall and began his walk towards Roy and Atticus. "I got quite a bit of fight out of her. I even got her to beg a little bit."_

" _Bullshit." Roy was sick of the way they were discussing his lieutenant in front of him. Tallen didn't stop._

" _You should've seen her face: the tears, the terror in her eyes..."_

" _What the hell did you do to her?"_

" _Hm, a better question would be what I_ haven't _done to her." He tapped his lower lip, pretending to think. Roy was fuming._

" _You better hope that's not true. When I get out of here, Greggs, I swear I'm going to-"_

" _Have you ever heard her cry out in agony; in pure, overwhelming torment, Colonel? After all of the years you've had together in the military and in the war, I'm sure you've heard it at least once." That revolting plummeting feeling returned; he had. The night he fulfilled his promise to her and burned away as much as he could from her back. She didn't mean to; it was involuntary and he knew she was upset with herself for allowing it to escape her lips. It was a small cry when the flames first licked her skin and it was absolutely heart wrenching. Tallen must have noticed the look of guilt on Roy's face because he chuckled._

" _I figured you had. I have too. But by the look on your face, it doesn't seem you enjoyed it as much as I did."_

 _Tallen grabbed Roy by the nape of the neck, harshly ripping his head back so that he was forced to look at him. "I heard her let out a scream. One just for me. Oh Colonel, it was delicious."_

 _Roy's upper lip quivered as an enraged growl rumbled behind his clenched teeth, imagining what this monster must have done to the resilient woman in order to provoke such a response from her. "I'll kill you!" He was fighting as hard as he could to get at Tallen which Tallen took great humor in and was once again laughing at Roy's failed attempts. "Well, Atticus, Mustang, It was fun but I should be off. I need to check on our sick lady and make sure the infection hasn't killed her yet. How unfortunate would that be?" A dark chuckle followed by an over the shoulder wave was all the madman offered to the questions swirling around Mustang's mind._

 _Infection? What the hell had they done to her? He continued yanking and struggling fruitlessly to get to the deranged man. "Come back here, you bastard! Stay away from her!" Roy's heart was sinking with every step Tallen took out of the room. Atticus took his place back in front of his prisoner, cupping his hands behind his back. "Let's get started, shall we?"_

His blood ran cold. Onyx eyes dilated as a terrifying realization hit the man. Had they killed her? This infection that Gideon spoke of, had it taken her? Or was it something far worse that stole her away from him? Was his lieutenant, his _Riza_ dead? The mere thought of such a thing made his stomach twist in knots and he believed he was going to be sick. Roy was feeling lightheaded from the nauseating feeling and from the devastating turmoil brewing inside of him. She couldn't die here, he wouldn't let this be the hell in which she took her last breath. He shifted his weight as best as he could in his current condition to the other foot and back again.

"Stop fidgeting."

"Where the hell is she?"

The guard, with his ankle resting on the opposing knee, sitting in the same chair Gideon had sat in days ago, didn't even both to look up from the smut magazine he was currently flipping through. "What are you on about now, Colonel?"

"Where the hell is my lieutenant? Tell me now."

The guard chuckled, lifting his eyes for a moment to glance at Roy. "You ain't really in a position to be giving orders."

Roy snarled. The guard wasn't wrong though. His temper was growing more and more difficult to reel in once provoked due to his lack of nourishment or rest. He shifted his feet once more, testing the chains on his ankles with a gentle tug.

"Hey now, dammit, I told ya to stop your fidgeting."

"Fuck you."

The man's eyes peeked out from over the top of his magazine. "What did you just say to me?"

Roy straightened his back to puff out his chest. His eyes narrowed at the guard. "I said, 'fuck you.'"

The man threw down his magazine, standing up from his chair. "Do you really want to play this game, Colonel?"

"What are you going to do about it?" He knew he was being foolish by provoking the guard but he just didn't care anymore. If Riza was truly gone, he had no reason to continue fighting. "I'm the Flame Alchemist; the one and _only_ Flame Alchemist. You're nothing. Legs and arms tied up and I'll still kick your ass."

A full key ring was pulled from the guard's pocket and he was angrily flipping through each key to find the appropriate one to enter Roy's cell. He smirked, anxious for a fight for some reason. "I don't care what they call you. I'll-"

"I don't believe I instructed you to pose threats to our guest, Claudius. You are relieved." Claudius stopped fumbling with the keys. He turned around to face the source of the voice and bowed his head in shame. The man muttered something of an apology under his breath before picking up his magazine and departing quickly. Atticus turned his attention to the shackled man and smiled, "You are looking a little worse for wear, Colonel."

"Gee, I wonder why." He responded, sarcastically. Atticus shook his head, "You've still managed to maintain that _charming_ attitude of yours, I see. No matter, we'll break you of that."

Roy ignored the threatening tone Atticus used. "Where is the Lieutenant?"

As if he was so annoyed by the question, Atticus rolled his eyes. "You refuse to answer my questions but expect me to answer yours?"

"You'll get nothing out of me if she's dead."

"Right, right. Of course." He waved it off as if the words meant nothing, causing Roy even more irritation. "For now, you should be worried more for yourself." That familiar sadistic smirk appeared on Atticus's face just as the bear-sized man, Barrett entered the room, cracking his knuckles. His body went cold, he didn't want to admit it, but every time these men entered his room, he did feel some semblance of fear for what they had in store for him; though he refused to show such a thing. The fight that was brewing in him only moments ago seemed to be blown out like the lit wick of a candle.

"'The one and only Flame Alchemist,' hm? Well, let's see how much more the _famous Flame_ can take."

* * *

"Answer the question, Colonel."

"Go to Hell."

Atticus nodded to Barrett, who was hovering behind a seated and strapped down Roy, silently instructing the oversized man to curl one of those substantial hands around Roy's middle finger on his left hand and thrust it backwards until it laid parallel with his palm. An indignant roar echoed out against the walls of the large room following the sound of the each miniature metacarpal in his knuckle cracked and crunched.

"You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to have Barrett here tear you apart, bone by bone."

"You are just wasting your time, Atticus. I would rather die than give someone like you access to something so powerful."

A sickening grin traced along Atticus's lips. "We'll just have to see which comes first then, hm?"

Barrett balled his plump fingers around another of Roy's fingers and snapped it back with another sickening crack. He felt like he was going to extrude the menial contents of his stomach or black out. Roy lolled his head forward which only caused the light, airy feeling in his head to increase.

"Don't worry, I won't let you pass out." Through the murky haze of Roy's gaze, he saw something glimmer as the fluorescent light hit it; it was a needle. Atticus was getting closer, tapping the barrel of the syringe. "I've been using this on your lieutenant. Here lately, she's been trying to pass out on me before we've finished our fun—I mean questioning." That familiar demented smirk reappeared on the man's face right before he shoved the needle into the side of Roy's neck. "This is called Paricyl. It's not exactly legal or safe but it definitely gets the job done."

Only seconds later, Roy felt the ability to sink into the darkness leave him. His body would no longer allow him any conscious escape from the agony. Another thought hit Roy; they had finally mentioned Riza. However, the way he spoke in past tense about her left Roy with that numb, empty feeling once more.

"Just let me know if you change your mind, Mustang."

Barrett continued until colors were bursting at the corners of Roy's eyes and he felt as if the pain was about to make him pass out. Anguished screams left him with a scratchy, inflamed throat and a barely audible voice. Barrett had broken four of Roy's fingers before he decided to grab Roy by the upper arm and place a hand against his back, indicating he was moving on to another part of his arm to snap.

"Where is the research?"

Roy remained silent, staring off across the room, Barrett rested a hand on the back of Roy's shoulder and another on his forearm then sharply yanked it back. The bone made a sickening popping sound and was soon shadowed by a pained scream in anguish from Roy.

There was a pulsating agony that would not dissipate from where his arm was now dislocated. Roy's eyes were shut tightly, his teeth gritted together in a desperate attempt to ignore the pain.

"Mustang? Are you going into shock already, or simply being rude and ignoring me?"

A humorless chuckle hissed out between Roy's clenched teeth. "Me being rude? You're the one that's being a horrible host. You haven't even offered me a drink yet."

Atticus seemed to find no humor in Roy's sarcasm and gave Barrett another nod. His over-sized hands pulled away from Roy's body which gave him a moment of relief, as he began unshackling the colonel from the chair. Those large hands yanked him up. Atticus clasped his hands behind his back, leaning towards Roy. His lips moved mere inches from the colonel's ear, "I saw what you did to her. Now I understand why she was so important to you; she was where you hid your precious alchemy."

The world seemed to stop; everything seemed to stop. His heart, his lungs, everything shut down just as a horrifying realization came to Roy: they had found the tattoo. The sharp intake of breath did not go unnoticed by Atticus.

"You truly are an entity of evil, aren't you? Convincing that poor woman to follow you blindly and allow you to mutilate her body for your own selfish reasons? You claim me and my men to be such monsters," He tapped Roy cheek with his palm a couple of times and grinned. "But you are the true monster, Roy Mustang."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Next chapter is almost done! Just need to do some editing at this point. The next chapter is the last "dark" chapter and then things will begin to look up for our lovely couple. I'll be posting it once I get some feedback. Love you all! Let me know what you think so far! ^_^**

 **-InconsciousSin.**


	7. Chapter 7: Leverage

**Author's Note: They should be "escaping" this hell-hole in the next chapter, if things work out with my muse. ^_~**

 **I had some free time this week, so I decided to work on this little guy. It's shorter than the others, so I do apologize. Anyway, here you go!**

 **Thank you all again so, so much for the reviews! (:**

* * *

Chapter Seven: _Leverage_

" _Do you think they're even still alive?"_ They all knew the unspoken question was woefully chiding each of them internally. They all knew how likely it was for their superiors to be dead by now, but they all refused to acknowledge such a disturbing possibility.

"It's been three weeks. We've exhausted so many options. How is such a big-name guy so hard to find?" Breda was sulking at this point. He held his face in his hands, slumping his shoulders forward. This endeavor was becoming tedious and with every new lead came that little flame of hope, only to be snuffed out when it was proven to be a dead end.

Falman was shuffling through maps, marking out all areas and towns that had been basically ransacked by their small search parties. "We've investigated all of Central and have sent search parties all the way down to South City. They reported back earlier this week to let us know that Rush Valley, Dublith, and South City are all clear. Our other group was sent towards West City and have yet to call with their findings. Has Hughes contacted you with any news?"

Havoc had his arms crossed with the heel of his foot against the edge of his desk, rocking his chair back on its hind legs. He shrugged. "Hughes has been accompanying a search party that was heading to North City, but hasn't reported anything back to us yet." The man blew out a puff of smoke before tapping the cigarette against the edge of the ash tray.

The team had been tirelessly searching everywhere possible for any sign of their superiors. Hughes had immediately requested numerous meetings with the man they had arrested a little over a month ago, Ronnie, who claimed to have been working for Tallen and was the reason his friends were at the bar that night. Unfortunately, he had very little information of Tallen's whereabouts or where he could possibly be holding Roy and Riza hostage. They had returned to the bar to question the bartender about what he had witnessed that night, but he claimed to have seen nothing out of the ordinary other than a bunch of overly intoxicated individuals. All in all, they had nothing to go on.

"Alright, since all of those areas are covered, we should start our own search party to the east then. I know there's a small town about two hundred miles out that hasn't been cleared called New Optain."

Havoc took a deep drag of his cigarette, "We'll leave first thing this afternoon."

* * *

An anguished hiss drifted from between his arid, cracked lips when he had attempted to salvage a new, bearable position to lay in on the unforgiving cement. Every intake of breath elicited a callous jolt in his left shoulder from where Barrett had dislodged the bone from its socket. He knew that wasn't the only indignant bone in his body. Just by readjusting his torso, the agony in his chest told him loud and clear that he had a few broken ribs to accompany the broken fingers, shattered wrist, and dislocated shoulder. His entire body hurt and his mind seemed to be in a slight fog from the lack of nourishment and sleep, but everything that Gideon and Atticus had said to him over the past…however long it had been, were swarming around in his mind.

Gideon was one of Berthold's apprentices. He claims to have had relations with Riza before getting kicked out of the Hawkeye household-what did he do to get kicked out? What did Riza _supposedly_ tell her father to have the man booted from their home? And then of course there was the fact that these monsters now knew of Riza's tattoo. Roy groaned into the cold cement he was currently resting his forehead against.

They had not taken him back to his cell this time. Instead, he believed he was once again in the large room from their first night here. The tall ceilings, bleach-white walls, the emptiness of the room aside from a sturdy, metal table that had been placed in the center of the room and a row of cabinetry against the wall to his right that he hadn't noticed before. He was free from his shackles, which was a pleasant feeling, but he assumed it was simply because his captors knew he was of little threat in his current state. A groan slid past Roy's lips as he once against tried to readjust his throbbing shoulder without upsetting the healing wounds covering his body. He was just about to give in to the devastating exhaustion begging him to close his eyes, when he felt the dull handle of a knife being shoved into one of the partially healing wounds in his chest, twisting it around until the wound was reopened. "It's time, Colonel." Crimson tears were crying down his chest. Roy groaned, cursing loudly. "I'm done. No more procrastinating. You are going to tell us what we want to know."

"No, I'm not." He winced again, feeling the handle shifting around in the gash. "You are going to tell me where my Lieutenant is."

Atticus laughed, yanking the dull end of the blade from Roy's skin. "'Just my subordinate,' he says. 'Nothing more than a military partnership,' he says. I call bullshit, Colonel."

Roy scoffed. He no longer cared what these men believed of his and Riza's relationship. At this point, he just wanted confirmation that she was still a part of this world. "Just know that if she is dead, you screwed yourself. If she's really gone, you have lost all leverage over me."

A wide smile spread across Atticus's face, watching the soldier writhe in agony with his hand clutching the fresh injury. "Is that right? Hm. So that's all we need to get a response from you, eh? _Leverage_?" He shrugged, "Very well." Atticus snapped his fingers together. He was busying himself with straightening out his tie when Gideon sauntered in with a less than sturdy figure in tow. The figure's feet appeared intoxicated; tripping over themselves and forcing the figure to bump into Gideon's elbow repeatedly. An array of deep purple and brownish-green contusions and trails of dried blood covered almost every inch of her long, pale legs. The white gown extending almost to her knees, appeared out of place on the battered, filth-covered figure it housed. Long, disheveled blonde hair lay in disarray over the being's face and around its shoulders. Roy could see the bones jutting out from beneath sallow skin at the junctions of her wrists and shoulders. Roy's heart couldn't decide if it wanted to burst from staggering relief and excitement or if it wanted to break at the site of the condition she was in.

"Lieutenant?" He was almost unsure if it was really her. Her fragile body appeared to be trembling, but he wasn't sure if that was due to his unsteady vision or due to her weakened state.

She slowly lifted her head at the sound of his voice. Her hair parted in front of her face to reveal those insipid eyes that once carried with them an amber spirit. Her cheek were hollowed out and her skin was an ashen color. Riza's chapped lips parted slightly in shock at seeing her superior. "Colonel." Hoarse, desolate, tired; that's how her voice sounded when she uttered his title; it broke him.

"You're alive."

She seemed confused at the utter relief that followed his own statement but managed to nod, "Just following my orders, sir." He couldn't help but flash her a soft smile of understanding.

"Enough." Gideon jerked Riza's forearm, almost sending her tumbling to the ground. Roy noticed that her hands were untied as well when she had to use them to catch herself with Gideon's shirt at his rough tug. "We tried getting what we needed out of the two of you by separating you and obviously that did no good; quite fun though." He grins, "I suppose now it's time to bring you back together and try things this way."

"We've played our games, we've had our fun, yes?" Atticus was pacing at a relaxed rate between the four people in the room. "Well, the time has come for our game to end. We are officially on a time restraint. So, with that in mind," He gestured his arms towards Roy. "What do you say, Mustang? Are you finally ready to cooperate? Or will your poor Lieutenant here," Atticus sauntered up to the side of Riza and ran the backs of his fingers up her neck, "have her pay even more for your selfishness?" She tugged away from his touch with what Roy noticed to be very weak resistance.

It took everything Roy had to ease himself up from his side to a sitting position. His arm and ribs began throbbing the moment he sat straight upright but he managed to hide the wince. Just as he managed to sit up, Gideon releases Riza's arm and instead roughly grabs her by the back of the neck. Riza feebly fought against the man; swinging her fists at him wildly while Gideon easily swatted each strike away from him and laughed. "Sweet little Riza, you wanna try that again?" She couldn't believe how slowly her fists had moved and how little power she could muster up behind them. It was upsetting. Gideon tightened his grip on Riza's neck.

"Let her go, Verot." Roy watched Riza's body visibly tense. Her lifeless eyes now wide, held a look of revelation and resentment. He had forgotten that she didn't know who Tallen truly was and wondered if he had just made a big mistake by letting her find out. He wasn't sure if she was mentally capable of handling such devastating news in her current condition.

Gideon laughed, turning his stare to the girl in his grasp. "So now you know. I'm honestly hurt that you didn't remember me sooner." A chill ran down her spine. She refused to meet his stare.

"Gideon Verot." Her voice was shallow, as if consumed by disbelief.

"Ahh, so you do remember me."

"How could I forget you?" The words were dry.

"I haven't forgotten you either, Miss Riza."

She was in complete disbelief at the realization that a ghost from her past had come back to haunt her.

* * *

 _"I heard some bad news today." He was fidgeting._

 _She turned her attention from his fingers to his face, lifting an eyebrow. "What's that?"_

 _He was staring off over the hillside. "Your father is exterminating our contract."_

 _She felt relief well up inside of her even though she saw this coming. He was always questioning her father about his secret research and was never willing to do the lessons Berthold assigned him each week. He had even taken to questioning_ her _about the research as well. Which meant he obviously didn't know her father too well; he would never tell her anything about something so important to him. She knew it was only a matter of time before her father grew tired of the impatient demands of his apprentice and chose to relieve him. She was so lost in her own thoughts on the topic that she hadn't noticed his sideways glance. "You knew."_

 _Her heart stopped. She turned to face him once more and frowned. "I didn't know. I had assumed this would happen eventually though. Just like I told you the first day you began asking questions about my father's research: he doesn't trust people easily, especially those that make their intentions so obvious. You should've listened."_

 _His eyes narrowed. That familiar unbridled rage she had seen in his eyes before, appeared and made her shiver. "I knew you were the one that told him to do this."_

 _"What? No, I didn't tell him to-"_

 _Her cheek stung. She was so shocked at the fact that he had just backhanded her that she didn't realize his hand was now reaching out to grapple her throat. "Whether I lose my apprenticeship or not, I will be getting that research one way or another, Miss Riza."_

* * *

He tilts her head with the hand behind her neck, forcing her to look at him. "Your father was so close to giving me that research until you told him what happened." His voice was laced with animosity.

Her eyes narrowed. "He was never going to give you anything. You were deranged back then too, and my father saw it. I didn't have to tell him anything." The muscles in Gideon's jaw tightened.

He tangled his fingers in Riza's hair, "You lying bitch. That's it." He turned his frenzied gaze to Roy. "There's no more time for you to contemplate." He yanks Riza with him to the middle of the room where the metal table was positioned and slams her face into it, holding her in a bent over position over the table.

"Colonel…" Her voice was foreign to both soldiers. It was laced with unfallen tears and tension for what was to come.

"Verot, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Gideon was still using one hand to hold Riza's head firmly down onto the table while his free hand began roaming carelessly up her thigh and up the side of her stomach beneath the dress. Riza's eyes slammed shut. She held a look of pure disgust on her horrified face. "Get your hands off of her!"

Gideon looked back to Roy, "Give me flame alchemy!" Roy looked desperately between Riza and her attacker just as his hand started making its decent back down the front of her stomach until it reached the brim of her underwear. Atticus was still standing a few feet from the scene with his arms crossed and his gaze set firmly on Roy. Roy was crawling as quickly as he could towards the table while dragging along his messed up arm behind him. He didn't make it far when two sets of hands grabbed his shoulders and stopped him dead in his tracks; it was Marco and Barrett. The weight against his hurt shoulder sent a shuddering wave of pain through his entire arm, but he ignored it, continuing to stare at his Lieutenant's face for any indication of what he was supposed to do. Gideon tugged at Riza's underwear, slipping them down her legs until they hit the ground. "What's more important, Roy? Let's find out." Riza's eyes were open again, staring into Roy's with what he believed to be very mixed emotions about the situation. She didn't want him to give up just for her, after everything they had already endured; but she also didn't want this monster to… to….

Roy could see the inner turmoil in her eyes and clenched his jaw. He didn't know what she was wanting him to do, but he knew precisely what he was needing to do. "I-I… I'm…" He didn't even know what to say. Gideon was unbuttoning his own pants now.

"Tick, tock, tick tock." He chided.

Roy snarled at him, "You get away from her right now, or I swear I'll-"

"You'll what, Colonel? What can you possibly do? You've yet to be able to do anything for her thus far, what makes you think you'll be her knight in shining armor now?" Riza twitched weakly against Gideon, thrusting her heel towards his zipper. Before it had a chance to connect with its desired target, Gideon yanked her head up from the table by her hair, slamming it back down with a loud thud.

"Lieutenant! Lieutenant… can you hear me? Answer me!" Panic was all Roy could feel at the dazed and confused look on Riza's face after being slammed once again into the table.

"R-Roy," The fact that she had called him by his first name had him on edge and even more worried for the woman. She looked so fragile, so helpless. It was a traumatizing site to see such a strong, courageous woman being reduced to a mere pawn in a monster's devilish endeavors. Gideon pushed the woman's dress up to stop at her lower back.

"Oh, nice." He murmured, gliding his palm along each cheek, giving one a harsh squeeze that caused Riza to cringe.

"Gideon, stop." The pleading tone of her voice surprised all of them. Roy's heart ached. Gideon, however, found it amusing and proceeded to spank her. She let out a tiny squeal that was barely above a whisper but Roy had heard it.

"Goddammit, Gideon, let her go! Now!" He was fighting as hard as he could against the firmly planted hands holding him back.

"You know how to make this stop, Roy. All it takes is filling in a few places on the array that you so selfishly scorched away." His stomach dropped. He had almost forgotten that these monsters had seen Riza's back and the secrets it held. He gritted his teeth; he didn't know what to do. Riza had been trained in torture; he knew she could handle it, hell, she had so far, but _this? He_ couldn't handle _this._ This wasn't just a physical agony. This was a mental and emotional torture. This was something that he could never live with himself if he allowed it to happen.

Witnessing the horror in her eyes; completely unmasked; her usual strong composure shattered in those terrified orbs; it felt worse than the dull end of the knife digging around in his chest. He knew, if he let this continue to fruition, Riza would never be able to even look him in the eye again. All faith and trust for him would be demolished. He tugged desperately against the weight of hands holding him in his place. "No, Gideon, please don't." Roy had never begged in his life, until now. He was fighting desperately against the men behind him, trying to shake them loose to no avail.

Gideon ran his fingers between Riza's thighs and let out a moan of delight at what he felt there. He lowered his lips to be flush with Riza's ear. "I'm going to enjoy this." She tried to hide her fear behind her anger, fighting against his hold, only to have him slam her head down onto the metal table once more. This time, a small gash formed on the side of her forehead, crying red. He fully unzipped his pants, pulling out his package and smiling down at the back of his victim.

"No!"

Atticus chuckled, "Well, I'd say we found his weak spot." He was clearly entertained.

Riza's eyes were slammed shut now and her mouth was in a tight line. Gideon inched his way closer to his victim. "I don't plan on this being pleasant for you, Sweetheart." The tip of his member slid between Riza's thighs. Roy's heart was cracking and shattering in his chest, he couldn't take it anymore.

"Dammit, I'll tell you! I'll tell you. Just, please, let her go." Roy thought he saw a shimmer of relief in Riza's eyes, and hoped he wasn't just seeing things. He knew this was against her wish; against their promise, but he also knew that had he known this was the way they would attempt to get him to give up Berthold's research, he would have never made that foolish promise to her. He had to break eye contact with his Lieutenant, feeling overwhelming guilt for what he was about to do. Gideon pulled himself away from Riza and tugged his pants back into place with one hand, but the fingers of the other remained tangled in her wild hair to keep her fixed to the table.

"What was that, Colonel?"

He gritted his teeth. Was this the right thing to do? He hung his head, allowing his own mess of hair to shield his eyes. What would come of this? Giving such powerful information to such dangerous people? "Colonel, we're waiting." He heard Riza utter something to him in a hollow whisper, but couldn't get himself to hone in on her words. It sounded like he was underwater, drowning in his conflicting emotions. Roy took a deep breath and slowly let it out, coming to absolution. Whatever they chose to do with the alchemy was nothing compared to what they were willing to do to his Lieutenant, his _Riza._ "You win. You let Riza go, and I'll tell you whatever you need to know about Flame Alchemy."

* * *

 **Author's Note: I apologize it took so long to upload this. College is kind of a bitch.**


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